Destination Earth: Building a Highly Accurate Digital Twin of the Earth
Destination Earth is a flagship initiative of the European Commission to develop a highly-accurate digital model of the Earth (a digital twin of the Earth) to model, monitor and simulate natural phenomena, hazards and the related human activities. This groundbreaking project assists users in designing accurate and actionable adaptation strategies and mitigation measures by pushing the limits of computing and climate sciences. DestinE unlocks the potential of digital modelling of the Earth system at a level that represents a real breakthrough in terms of accuracy, local detail, access-to-information speed and interactivity.
Core Objectives and Use Cases
DestinE supports tackling complex environmental challenges to monitor and simulate the Earth’s system developments including land, marine, atmosphere, and biosphere. Specifically, the initiative aims to:
- Anticipate environmental disasters and resultant socio-economic crises to save lives and avoid large economic downturns.
- Enable the development and testing of scenarios for ever more sustainable development.
- Support the green transition, helping the EU achieve its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.
The Main Components of the DestinE System
The system is built upon three pillars that provide evidence-based decision-making tools, applications, and services:
- DestinE Platform: Developed and operated by ESA, this open and secure cloud environment supports data exploitation and creates a new flexible and scalable ecosystem for citizens, scientists, and policymakers.
- Data Lake: Implemented by EUMETSAT, the data lake brings together data from the European Space Agency, EUMETSAT, Copernicus, and other diverse sources, allowing for big data processing in the cloud.
- Digital Twins and Digital Twin Engine: ECMWF is implementing the Digital Twin Engine and the first two digital twins: Climate Change Adaptation and Weather-induced Extremes.
Roles of Leading European Organisations
The implementation efforts are led and coordinated by a core group of organisations as detailed below:
| Organisation | Key Responsibility |
|---|---|
| European Commission | Leads and coordinates the implementation efforts among the core group. |
| ESA | Responsible for the DestinE Platform and the Open Core Service. |
| ECMWF | Responsible for the creation of the first two digital twins and the Digital Twin Engine. |
| EUMETSAT | Responsible for the DestinE Data Lake and earth-system monitoring outputs. |
Thematic Digital Twins and Specialist Models
In addition to the core system, several partial models focusing on various regions or subsystems are being developed:
- Antarctic Twin: Developed by a team led by the University of Edinburgh, this model tracks melt water to explore how fringing ice shelves melt under various hydrology scenarios.
- Digital Twin Ocean: Developed by the National Institute for Ocean Science in France, it looks at the interplay between changes in the atmosphere and the behavior of the oceans.
- Digital Twin Food Systems: Simulates how agricultural activities interfere with the wider natural system and models the effects of climate variations on food production.
- Forest Digital Twin: Aims to create the most detailed and realistic model of global forest cover to study carbon dioxide storage.
DestinE Development Timeline
The initiative is progressing through the following key milestones:
- 2022: Official launch event of the initiative following the signing of the Contribution Agreements.
- By 2024: All the components of the system (DestinE Platform, Data Lake, Digital Twin Engine) have been developed and transferred into operation.
- By 2026: Further enhancement of the DestinE system and integration of additional digital twins and related services.
