Earth observation provides a wealth of information to benefit our daily lives. As the demand for...
As the demand for satellite data grows to address the challenges of climate change and a growing population, ESA, under the leadership of the European Commission, along with its key European partners, are developing high precision digital models of Earth to monitor and simulate both natural and human activity, to enable more sustainable development and support European environmental policies.
Today, at the ESA Council, Member States approved a 'Contribution Agreement', which paves the way for cooperation with the European Commission on the Destination Earth initiative, in the context of the Digital Agenda of the European Union.
Destination Earth hosts digital twins - digital replicas of various aspects of the Earth's system - that can monitor, analyse, predict and safeguard various terrestrial aspects including climate dynamics, natural disasters, food and water security, ocean circulation and biodiversity.
Constantly fed with Earth observation data, combined with in situ measurements and artificial intelligence, the digital twins provide us with highly accurate representation of the past, present and future changes of our world.
Destination Earth will also form the baseline for effective European adaptation strategies in support of the green transition, helping the EU reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, and the implementation of the European Commission's Green Deal and Digital Strategy.
Destination Earth is a key initiative for Europe, forming the baseline for effective European adaptation strategies and supporting the green transition.
"Through ESA's expertise, we are pushing forward with Destination Earth, making us an invaluable partner for the European Commission. We are looking forward to collaborating with ECMWF and Eumetsat in order to make this a reality."
ESA will be responsible for the DestinE Open Core Service Platform, a user-friendly and secure cloud-based digital modelling and open simulation platform.
The platform will rely on the most comprehensive and sophisticated space-based observation data, including data from ESA's Earth Explorers, the Copernicus Sentinel series, the meteorological missions and different Earth observation satellites.
More digital twins will be developed in the following years and brought together to develop a 'full' digital replica of the Earth system by 2030.