Quantum Computers for Weather and Climate Prediction: The Good, the Bad and the Noisy

Over the past few years, quantum computers and quantum algorithms have attracted considerable interest and attention from numerous scientific disciplines. In this article, we aim to provide a non-technical, yet informative introduction to key aspects of quantum computing. We discuss whether quantum computers one day might become useful tools for numerical weather and climate prediction. Using a recently developed quantum algorithm for solving non-linear differential equations, we integrate a simple non-linear model. In addition to considering the advantages that quantum computers have to offer, we shall also discuss the challenges one faces when trying to use quantum computers for real-world problems involving ‘‘big data’’, such as weather prediction.