The Destination Earth (DestinE) second phase will be inaugurated on Monday 10 June 2024 by Margrethe Vestager, the Executive Vice-President for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age of the European Commission. The ambitious initiative of the European Commission to build a digital replica of our planet will go live during an event from the LUMI supercomputing center in Kajaani, Finland.
The European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) will participate in the event, along with representatives of its over 90 partner institutions in DestinE.
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CNECT) is organising a high-level event that will mark the end of the first phase of DestinE and the start of Phase II.
DestinE aims to build a digital replica of our planet, with digital twins simulating different aspects of the Earth system, to enhance our capability to respond and adapt to the environmental challenges posed by extreme events and climate change.
In partnership with EuroHPC, DestinE:
- Sets up a unique bespoke cutting-edge high-resolution simulation capability allowing to test hypothesis and scenarios regarding the evolution of the Earth system from days to decades ahead
- Provides globally consistent earth-system and impact-sector information at scales where extreme events and climate change impacts are felt
- Fosters an AI-enabled digital ecosystem supporting decision-making
The information system DestinE sets up is composed of several innovative elements:
- The Climate Change Adaptation Digital Twin (Climate DT), developed by a large consortium contracted by ECMWF and led by Finland’s CSC IT Center for Science. The Climate DT has been successfully deployed on the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking’s LUMI supercomputer.
- The Weather-induced Extremes Digital Twin, (Extremes DT) developed jointly by ECMWF, and a large consortium contracted by ECMWF and led by Météo France.
- The Digital Twin Engine, the software architecture developed by ECMWF and its partner institutions.
- The Service Platform, provided by ESA, that will give users access to the system.
- The Data Lake, developed by EUMETSAT, that provides access to the data.
Only two years after the initiative kicked off, the system is ready to demonstrate the potential of the innovative elements of this novel information system is setting up. DestinE has rapidly become a truly European endeavour, and the three entities implementing DestinE; ECMWF, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), and the European Space Agency (ESA) are now working with over 100 institutions from 27 countries.
Excellent progress has been made on building and integrating the main elements of the DestinE system.
The event will mark the end of the implementation phase of DestinE and the start of Phase II, during which the different components will be consolidated, transitioned towards operations and further evolved.
The onsite event, under invitation from DG CNECT, will gather representatives of the EU Commission, the three implementing entities and their partner institutions, the Finnish Government and other key European and international stakeholders.
The full programme and details will be made available soon on the DG CNECT website.