MLAir - Machine Learning on Air Data
MLAir (Machine Learning on Air data) is an environment that simplifies and accelerates the creation of new machine learning (ML) models for the analysis and forecasting of meteorological and air quality time series. You can find the docs here.
- MLAir - Machine Learning on Air Data
- Installation
- How to start with MLAir
- Default Workflow
- Customised Run Module and Workflow
- Custom Model
- Data Handlers
- Special Remarks
Installation
MLAir is based on several python frameworks. To work properly, you have to install all packages from the
requirements.txt
file. Additionally to support the geographical plotting part it is required to install geo
packages built for your operating system. Unfortunately, the names of these package may differ for different systems.
In this instruction, we try to address users of different operating systems namely openSUSE Leap, Ubuntu and macOS.
If the installation is still not working, we recommend skipping the geographical plot. We have put together a small
workaround here. For special instructions to install MLAir on the Juelich
HPC systems, see here.
- Make sure to have the python3.6 version installed.
- (geo) A c++ compiler is required for the installation of the program cartopy
- (geo) Install proj and GEOS on your machine using the console.
- Install the python3.6 develop libraries.
- Install all requirements from
requirements.txt
preferably in a virtual environment. You can usepip install -r requirements.txt
to install all requirements at once. Note, we recently updated the version of Cartopy and there seems to be an ongoing issue when installing numpy and Cartopy at the same time. If you run into trouble, you could usecat requirements.txt | cut -f1 -d"#" | sed '/^\s*$/d' | xargs -L 1 pip install
instead. - Installation of MLAir:
- Either clone MLAir from the gitlab repository and use it without installation (beside the requirements)
- or download the distribution file (current version)
and install it via
pip install <dist_file>.whl
. In this case, you can simply import MLAir in any python script inside your virtual environment usingimport mlair
.
- (tf) Currently, TensorFlow-1.13 is mentioned in the requirements. We already tested the TensorFlow-1.15 version and couldn't find any compatibility errors. Please note, that tf-1.13 and 1.15 have two distinct branches each, the default branch for CPU support, and the "-gpu" branch for GPU support. If the GPU version is installed, MLAir will make use of the GPU device.
openSUSE Leap 15.1
- c++ compiler
sudo zypper install gcc-c++
- geo packages
sudo zypper install proj geos-devel
- depending on the pre-installed packages it could be required to install further packages
sudo zypper install libproj-devel binutils gdal-devel graphviz graphviz-gnome
- python develop libraries
sudo zypper install python3-devel
Ubuntu 20.04.1
- c++ compiler
sudo apt install build-essential
- geo packages
sudo apt install proj-bin libgeos-dev libproj-dev
- depending on the pre-installed packages it could be required to install further packages
sudo apt install graphviz libgeos++-dev
- python develop libraries
sudo apt install python3.6-dev
macOS & windows
The installation on macOS is not tested yet. The following commands are possibly needed:
brew install geos
sudo port install graphviz
The installation on Windows is not tested yet.
How to start with MLAir
In this section, we show three examples how to work with MLAir. Note, that for these examples MLAir was installed using the distribution file. In case you are using the git clone it is required to adjust the import path if not directly executed inside the source directory of MLAir. There is also a downloadable Jupyter Notebook provided in that you can run the following examples. Note that this notebook still requires an installation of MLAir.
Example 1
We start MLAir in a dry run without any modification. Just import mlair and run it.
import mlair
# just give it a dry run without any modification
mlair.run()
The logging output will show you many informations. Additional information (including debug messages) are collected inside the experiment path in the logging folder.
INFO: DefaultWorkflow started
INFO: ExperimentSetup started
INFO: Experiment path is: /home/<usr>/mlair/testrun_network
...
INFO: load data for DEBW107 from JOIN
INFO: load data for DEBY081 from JOIN
INFO: load data for DEBW013 from JOIN
INFO: load data for DEBW076 from JOIN
INFO: load data for DEBW087 from JOIN
...
INFO: Training started
...
INFO: DefaultWorkflow finished after 0:03:04 (hh:mm:ss)
Example 2
Now we update the stations and customise the window history size parameter.
import mlair
# our new stations to use
stations = ['DEBW030', 'DEBW037', 'DEBW031', 'DEBW015', 'DEBW107']
# expanded temporal context to 14 (days, because of default sampling="daily")
window_history_size = 14
# restart the experiment with little customisation
mlair.run(stations=stations,
window_history_size=window_history_size)
The output looks similar, but we can see, that the new stations are loaded.
INFO: DefaultWorkflow started
INFO: ExperimentSetup started
...
INFO: load data for DEBW030 from JOIN
INFO: load data for DEBW037 from JOIN
INFO: load data for DEBW031 from JOIN
INFO: load data for DEBW015 from JOIN
...
INFO: Training started
...
INFO: DefaultWorkflow finished after 00:02:03 (hh:mm:ss)
Example 3
Let's just apply our trained model to new data. Therefore we keep the window history size parameter but change the stations. In the run method, we need to disable the trainable and create new model parameters. MLAir will use the model we have trained before. Note, this only works if the experiment path has not changed or a suitable trained model is placed inside the experiment path.
import mlair
# our new stations to use
stations = ['DEBY002', 'DEBY079']
# same setting for window_history_size
window_history_size = 14
# run experiment without training
mlair.run(stations=stations,
window_history_size=window_history_size,
create_new_model=False,
train_model=False)
We can see from the terminal that no training was performed. Analysis is now made on the new stations.
INFO: DefaultWorkflow started
...
INFO: No training has started, because train_model parameter was false.
...
INFO: DefaultWorkflow finished after 0:01:27 (hh:mm:ss)
Default Workflow
MLAir is constituted of so-called run_modules
which are executed in a distinct order called workflow
. MLAir
provides a default_workflow
. This workflow runs the run modules ExperimentSetup
, PreProcessing
,
ModelSetup
, Training
, and PostProcessing
one by one.
import mlair
# create your custom MLAir workflow
DefaultWorkflow = mlair.DefaultWorkflow()
# execute default workflow
DefaultWorkflow.run()
The output of running this default workflow will be structured like the following.
INFO: DefaultWorkflow started
INFO: ExperimentSetup started
...
INFO: ExperimentSetup finished after 00:00:01 (hh:mm:ss)
INFO: PreProcessing started
...
INFO: PreProcessing finished after 00:00:11 (hh:mm:ss)
INFO: ModelSetup started
...
INFO: ModelSetup finished after 00:00:01 (hh:mm:ss)
INFO: Training started
...
INFO: Training finished after 00:02:15 (hh:mm:ss)
INFO: PostProcessing started
...
INFO: PostProcessing finished after 00:01:37 (hh:mm:ss)
INFO: DefaultWorkflow finished after 00:04:05 (hh:mm:ss)
Customised Run Module and Workflow
It is possible to create new custom run modules. A custom run module is required to inherit from the base class
RunEnvironment
and to hold the constructor method __init__()
. This method has to execute the module on call.
In the following example, this is done by using the _run()
method that is called by the initialiser. It is
possible to parse arguments to the custom run module as shown.
import mlair
import logging
class CustomStage(mlair.RunEnvironment):
"""A custom MLAir stage for demonstration."""
def __init__(self, test_string):
super().__init__() # always call super init method
self._run(test_string) # call a class method
def _run(self, test_string):
logging.info("Just running a custom stage.")
logging.info("test_string = " + test_string)
epochs = self.data_store.get("epochs")
logging.info("epochs = " + str(epochs))
If a custom run module is defined, it is required to adjust the workflow. For this, you need to load the empty
Workflow
class and add each run module that is required. The order of adding modules defines the order of
execution if running the workflow.
# create your custom MLAir workflow
CustomWorkflow = mlair.Workflow()
# provide stages without initialisation
CustomWorkflow.add(mlair.ExperimentSetup, epochs=128)
# add also keyword arguments for a specific stage
CustomWorkflow.add(CustomStage, test_string="Hello World")
# finally execute custom workflow in order of adding
CustomWorkflow.run()
The output will look like:
INFO: Workflow started
...
INFO: ExperimentSetup finished after 00:00:12 (hh:mm:ss)
INFO: CustomStage started
INFO: Just running a custom stage.
INFO: test_string = Hello World
INFO: epochs = 128
INFO: CustomStage finished after 00:00:01 (hh:mm:ss)
INFO: Workflow finished after 00:00:13 (hh:mm:ss)
Custom Model
Create your own model to run your personal experiment. To guarantee a proper integration in the MLAir workflow, models
are restricted to inherit from the AbstractModelClass
. This will ensure a smooth training and evaluation
behaviour.
How to create a customised model?
- Create a new model class inheriting from
AbstractModelClass
from mlair import AbstractModelClass
class MyCustomisedModel(AbstractModelClass):
def __init__(self, input_shape: list, output_shape: list):
# set attributes shape_inputs and shape_outputs
super().__init__(input_shape[0], output_shape[0])
# apply to model
self.set_model()
self.set_compile_options()
self.set_custom_objects(loss=self.compile_options['loss'])
- Make sure to add the
super().__init__()
and at leastset_model()
andset_compile_options()
to your custom init method. - The shown model expects a single input and output branch provided in a list. Therefore shapes of input and output are extracted and then provided to the super class initialiser.
- Some general settings like the dropout rate are set in the init method additionally.
- If you have custom objects in your model, that are not part of the keras or tensorflow frameworks, you need to add
them to custom objects. To do this, call
set_custom_objects
with arbitrarily kwargs. In the shown example, the loss has been added for demonstration only, because we use a build-in loss function. Nonetheless, we always encourage you to add the loss as custom object, to prevent potential errors when loading an already created model instead of training a new one. - Now build your model inside
set_model()
by using the instance attributesself._input_shape
andself._output_shape
and storing the model asself.model
.
import keras
from keras.layers import PReLU, Input, Conv2D, Flatten, Dropout, Dense
class MyCustomisedModel(AbstractModelClass):
def set_model(self):
x_input = Input(shape=self._input_shape)
x_in = Conv2D(4, (1, 1))(x_input)
x_in = PReLU()(x_in)
x_in = Flatten()(x_in)
x_in = Dropout(0.1)(x_in)
x_in = Dense(16)(x_in)
x_in = PReLU()(x_in)
x_in = Dense(self._output_shape)(x_in)
out = PReLU()(x_in)
self.model = keras.Model(inputs=x_input, outputs=[out])
- Your are free how to design your model. Just make sure to save it in the class attribute model.
- Additionally, set your custom compile options including the loss definition.
from keras.losses import mean_squared_error as mse
class MyCustomisedModel(AbstractModelClass):
def set_compile_options(self):
self.initial_lr = 1e-2
self.optimizer = keras.optimizers.SGD(lr=self.initial_lr, momentum=0.9)
self.loss = mse
self.compile_options = {"metrics": ["mse", "mae"]}
-
The allocation of the instance parameters
initial_lr
,optimizer
, andlr_decay
could be also part of the model class' initialiser. The same applies toself.loss
andcompile_options
, but we recommend to use theset_compile_options
method for the definition of parameters, that are related to the compile options. -
More important is that the compile options are actually saved. There are three ways to achieve this.
-
(1): Set all compile options by parsing a dictionary with all options to
self.compile_options
. -
(2): Set all compile options as instance attributes. MLAir will search for these attributes and store them.
-
(3): Define your compile options partly as dictionary and instance attributes (as shown in this example).
-
If using (3) and defining the same compile option with different values, MLAir will raise an error.
Incorrect: (Will raise an error because of a mismatch for the
optimizer
parameter.)def set_compile_options(self): self.optimizer = keras.optimizers.SGD() self.loss = keras.losses.mean_squared_error self.compile_options = {"optimizer" = keras.optimizers.Adam()}
-
How to plug in the customised model into the workflow?
- Make use of the
model
argument and passMyCustomisedModel
when instantiating a workflow.
from mlair.workflows import DefaultWorkflow
workflow = DefaultWorkflow(model=MyCustomisedModel)
workflow.run()
Specials for Branched Models
- If you have a branched model with multiple outputs, you need either set only a single loss for all branch outputs or provide the same number of loss functions considering the right order.
class MyCustomisedModel(AbstractModelClass):
def set_model(self):
...
self.model = keras.Model(inputs=x_input, outputs=[out_minor_1, out_minor_2, out_main])
def set_compile_options(self):
self.loss = [keras.losses.mean_absolute_error] + # for out_minor_1
[keras.losses.mean_squared_error] + # for out_minor_2
[keras.losses.mean_squared_error] # for out_main
How to access my customised model?
If the customised model is created, you can easily access the model with
>>> MyCustomisedModel().model
<your custom model>
The loss is accessible via
>>> MyCustomisedModel().loss
<your custom loss>
You can treat the instance of your model as instance but also as the model itself. If you call a method, that refers to the model instead of the model instance, you can directly apply the command on the instance instead of adding the model parameter call.
>>> MyCustomisedModel().model.compile(**kwargs) == MyCustomisedModel().compile(**kwargs)
True
Data Handlers
Data handlers are responsible for all tasks related to data like data acquisition, preparation and provision. A data
handler must inherit from the abstract base class AbstractDataHandler
and requires the implementation of the
__init__()
method and the accessors get_X()
and get_Y()
. In the following, we show an example how a custom data
handler could look like.
import datetime as dt
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import xarray as xr
from mlair.data_handler import AbstractDataHandler
class DummyDataHandler(AbstractDataHandler):
def __init__(self, name, number_of_samples=None):
"""This data handler takes a name argument and the number of samples to generate. If not provided, a random
number between 100 and 150 is set."""
super().__init__()
self.name = name
self.number_of_samples = number_of_samples if number_of_samples is not None else np.random.randint(100, 150)
self._X = self.create_X()
self._Y = self.create_Y()
def create_X(self):
"""Inputs are random numbers between 0 and 10 with shape (no_samples, window=14, variables=5)."""
X = np.random.randint(0, 10, size=(self.number_of_samples, 14, 5)) # samples, window, variables
datelist = pd.date_range(dt.datetime.today().date(), periods=self.number_of_samples, freq="H").tolist()
return xr.DataArray(X, dims=['datetime', 'window', 'variables'], coords={"datetime": datelist,
"window": range(14),
"variables": range(5)})
def create_Y(self):
"""Targets are normal distributed random numbers with shape (no_samples, window=5, variables=1)."""
Y = np.round(0.5 * np.random.randn(self.number_of_samples, 5, 1), 1) # samples, window, variables
datelist = pd.date_range(dt.datetime.today().date(), periods=self.number_of_samples, freq="H").tolist()
return xr.DataArray(Y, dims=['datetime', 'window', 'variables'], coords={"datetime": datelist,
"window": range(5),
"variables": range(1)})
def get_X(self, upsampling=False, as_numpy=False):
"""Upsampling parameter is not used for X."""
return np.copy(self._X) if as_numpy is True else self._X
def get_Y(self, upsampling=False, as_numpy=False):
"""Upsampling parameter is not used for Y."""
return np.copy(self._Y) if as_numpy is True else self._Y
def __str__(self):
return self.name
Special Remarks
Workaround to skip geographical plot
If it is not possible to install all required geo libraries on your system, a good compromise is to skip the creation
of the geographical plot. Therefore, it is required to remove the plot from the plot_list
manually. We recommend to
use this code snippet as a starting point.
from mlair.helpers import remove_items
from mlair.configuration.defaults import DEFAULT_PLOT_LIST
mlair.run(plot_list=remove_items(DEFAULT_PLOT_LIST, "PlotStationMap"))
Special instructions for installation on Jülich HPC systems
Please note, that the HPC setup is customised for JUWELS and HDFML. When using another HPC system, you can use the HPC setup files as a skeleton and customise it to your needs.
The following instruction guide you through the installation on JUWELS and HDFML.
- Clone the repo to HPC system (we recommend to place it in
/p/projects/<project name>
). - Setup venv by executing
source setupHPC.sh
. This script loads all pre-installed modules and creates a venv for all other packages. Furthermore, it creates slurm/batch scripts to execute code on compute nodes. You have to enter the HPC project's budget name (--account flag). - The default external data path on JUWELS and HDFML is set to
/p/project/deepacf/intelliaq/<user>/DATA/toar_<sampling>
. To choose a different location openrun.py
and add the following keyword argument toExperimentSetup
:data_path=<your>/<custom>/<path>
. - Execute
python run.py
on a login node to download example data. The program will throw an OSerror after downloading. - Execute either
sbatch run_juwels_develgpus.bash
orsbatch run_hdfml_batch.bash
to verify that the setup went well. - Currently cartopy is not working on our HPC system, therefore PlotStations does not create any output.
Note: The method PartitionCheck
currently only checks if the hostname starts with ju
or hdfmll
.
Therefore, it might be necessary to adopt the if
statement in PartitionCheck._run
.
Security using JOIN
- To use hourly data from ToarDB via JOIN interface, a private token is required. Request your personal access token and
add it to
src/join_settings.py
in the hourly data section. Replace theTOAR_SERVICE_URL
and theAuthorization
value. To make sure, that this sensitive data is not uploaded to the remote server, use the following command to prevent git from tracking this file:git update-index --assume-unchanged src/join_settings.py