Microsoft and Terradot adapt Aurora weather model to speed up rock-based carbon removal

Nov 13, 2026
TerraNova predicts soil chemistry changes from crushed rock on farmland, aiming to cut the cost of measuring enhanced rock weathering.

Carbon removal company Terradot and Microsoft have built TerraNova, an AI model that predicts how crushed rock spread on farmland changes the soil's chemistry, Microsoft said. It adapts Aurora, Microsoft's foundation model for weather and environmental forecasting, using Terradot's data from fields in Brazil and the US.

The technique, enhanced rock weathering, speeds up a natural process in which rock reacts with rainwater and carbon dioxide. Measuring how much carbon it removes needs many soil samples and lab analysis, which makes up a large share of the cost, and picking suitable fields takes expensive trial and error. TerraNova aims to make both cheaper.

The research will appear in a preprint ahead of peer review; earlier versions were accepted for a NeurIPS 2026 climate workshop. The Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is an early investor in Terradot.

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