Applying machine learning and deep learning to forecast allergic pollen
using environmental, land surface and NEXRAD radar parameters
Abstract
Airborne allergic pollen is a well known trigger for several cases of
public health issues affecting millions of people. The effect is highly
prevalent in the temperature region, especially in the North American
region and Europe. For example, about 50 million Americans are affected
by pollen caused allergy and similarly, studies show quite a significant
population of Europe is affected. Contrary to the higher abundance of
pollen in rural areas, pollen allergy is severe in urban areas than
rural environments. Of all sources, it is the Ambrosia pollen that
affects most due to its abundant production, strong allergic potency and
its high prevalence near urban areas. Hence estimating the concentration
of allergic pollen in the ambient atmosphere and notifying the public is
crucial for people with allergies and health professionals who care for
them. In this workshop, we present estimation of allergic pollen
(particularly Ambrosia pollen) using advanced machine learning methods
and input parameters from a suite of sources ranging from land surface
to global reanalysis models and NEXRAD weather radar measurements at
location of Tulsa, Oklahoma. We will present results of the machine
learning model tested using an independent dataset and characterization
of each atmospheric and land surface parameters’ importance for the
machine learning estimation.