Bespoke simulation capabilities - Digital Twins for Weather-induced Extremes and Climate

The objective of DestinE is to create a highly accurate replica or Digital Twin of the Earth. This constitutes a new type of information system, with unprecedented levels of detail, quality, and interactivity to support EU-policy makers and users who implement these policies to better respond and adapt to the challenges posed by environmental change.

Several thematic digital twins of the Earth-system are developed over the course of different phases of DestinE with the first implementations focussing on Extreme Weather and Climate adaptation. DestinE’s digital twins exploit the latest advances in digital technology, science, artificial intelligence, and the huge opportunities offered by the world-leading supercomputing capacities of the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU). By combining cutting-edge Earth-system physical and data-driven models and observations DestinE’s digital twins offer bespoke simulation capabilities that accurately simulate natural and human activity and allow to test scenarios that would enable more sustainable development and support European environmental policies. On-demand simulations and a comprehensive distributed data and compute infrastructure tailored to the Big Data needs of Destination Earth for tackling climate and environment-related challenges is located closely to maximise the EuroHPC facilities offered within the strategic allocation in support of the DestinE service.

The European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) are the three organisations entrusted by the EU (DG-CNECT) to achieve this unprecedented endeavour for climate, weather and computing sciences. The work involves scientists, computer analysts and domain experts across many contributing institutions and European countries working together on this common goal.