Destination Earth – developing a digital model of the earth

Destination Earth creates the opportunity for digital modelling of the Earth's system at a level that represents a significant breakthrough in accuracy, local details, interactivity, and speed of information access. By pushing the boundaries in computational science, data management, and understanding Earth's processes, Destination Earth is a crucial component in the European Commission's efforts towards the EU Green Deal and the Digital Strategy. The digital twin will help users develop precise and actionable adaptation strategies and mitigation measures.

Go to the Digital Strategy External link.

How Destination Earth can be used

Destination Earth will support the management of complex environmental changes by:

• Monitoring and simulating the development of the Earth's system (land, sea, atmosphere, and biosphere) and human needs for protective measures.
• Predicting environmental disasters and subsequent socioeconomic crises to protect lives and avoid major economic downturns.
• Enabling the development and testing of scenarios for more sustainable development.

Destination Earth will provide users with access to thematic information, services, models, scenarios, simulations, forecasts, and visualisations.

European collaboration in development

The European meteorological satellite organisation EUMETSAT, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), and the European Space Agency (ESA) are the three organisations selected by the European Commission to implement Destination Earth up to around 2030.

The main components of the system are:

• Service platform (tools, applications, etc.)
• Data platform (also known as Data Lake)
• Digital twins and the engine (software and related IT services) for these

Digital twin for extremes – on demand extremes

With the digital twin for extreme weather – Destination Earth On Demand Extremes – the ability to combine information on weather conditions, hydrology, air quality observations, and simulation capabilities will be elevated to a new quality level. There is a strong focus on effective decision-making support, including uncertainty estimation, for critical societal functions. The work will integrate the engine of the digital twin with other components of the Destination Earth platform.

ECMWF is responsible for developing the first two digital twins, for extreme weather and climate adaptation. The development of the digital twin for extreme weather – On-Demand Extremes Digital Twin – is carried out in a project led by Météo-France, with SMHI being one of the subcontractors contributing to the construction of the digital twin. SMHI is involved in several work packages related to the design and development of the system, covering meteorology, climate, hydrology, and air quality.