# EO-Agents: A Three-Agent LLM Pipeline for Earth Observation Hypothesis Generation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.01584 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.01584/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Multimodal and embodied agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 23 of its 30 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Jul 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Multimodal and embodied agents](https://mlsanity.com/agents/multimodal-and-embodied-agents/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 23 of 23)

- [Judging LLM-as-a-Judge with MT-Bench and Chatbot Arena](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.05685/) (2023)
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- [C-Pack: Packed Resources For General Chinese Embeddings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.07597/) (2023)
- [SPECTER: Document-level Representation Learning using Citation-informed Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.07180/) (2020)
- [The AI Scientist-v2: Workshop-Level Automated Scientific Discovery via Agentic Tree Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.08066/) (2025)
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- [Can LLMs Generate Novel Research Ideas? A Large-Scale Human Study with 100+ NLP Researchers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.04109/) (2024)
- [Self-Preference Bias in LLM-as-a-Judge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.21819/) (2024)
- [ResearchAgent: Iterative Research Idea Generation over Scientific Literature with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.07738/) (2024)
- [SciMON: Scientific Inspiration Machines Optimized for Novelty](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14259/) (2023)
- [SciRepEval: A Multi-Format Benchmark for Scientific Document Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.13308/) (2022)
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- [Mission Critical -- Satellite Data is a Distinct Modality in Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01444/) (2024)
- [MOOSE-Chem: Large Language Models for Rediscovering Unseen Chemistry Scientific Hypotheses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.07076/) (2024)
- [Foundation Models for Remote Sensing and Earth Observation: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.16602/) (2024)
- [Neural Common Neighbor with Completion for Link Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.00890/) (2023)
- [ResearchTown: Simulator of Human Research Community](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.17767/) (2024)
- [AutoDiscovery: Open-ended Scientific Discovery via Bayesian Surprise](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.00310/) (2025)
- [MOOSE-Chem2: Exploring LLM Limits in Fine-Grained Scientific Hypothesis Discovery via Hierarchical Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19209/) (2025)
- [Any Large Language Model Can Be a Reliable Judge: Debiasing with a Reasoning-based Bias Detector](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.17100/) (2025)
- [On the Impact of Feature Heterophily on Link Prediction with Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.17475/) (2024)
- [AstroAgents: A Multi-Agent AI for Hypothesis Generation from Mass Spectrometry Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.23170/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large language models have recently been explored for scientific hypothesis generation, but most prior work relies on unstructured literature and free-form textual claims. We present a pipeline for Earth observation that grounds hypothesis generation directly in the NASA Earth Observation Knowledge Graph. A heterogeneous graph neural network trained on historical co-usage relations ranks candidate dataset pairings, and a three-agent LLM pipeline filters, generates, and evaluates structured research hypotheses. Applied to 1,475 NASA datasets, the system produces 160 hypotheses spanning multiple Earth-science domains, including ecohydrology, glaciology, aerosol--cloud interactions, vegetation phenology, and stratospheric chemistry. Model-predicted novel dataset pairings are rated nearly as plausible as held-out real co-usages from the literature, indicating that the pipeline surfaces scientifically coherent yet unexplored combinations. A 2*2*2 factorial experiment across GPT-5.2 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 shows that hypothesis rankings remain stable, while absolute scores depend strongly on judge identity, highlighting limitations of single-judge LLM evaluation.
