Understanding DestinE's Digital Twins

“Predictive maintenance”

The idea behind a digital twin

Digital twins are virtual (or digital) representations of products, people, processes and even spatial environments.

Initially used in industrial sectors, a digital twin uses a fusion of numerical simulations and observations to create a virtual replica which is undistinguishable from reality. This allows to understand how the product will perform in the physical world and to explore how it can be adapted to improve its performance.

This process allows for what is called the “predictive maintenance”. This refers to the ability to find solutions to potential problems with a product, enabling an endless amount of feedback loops, to take decisions and actions related to the real product.

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DestinE boosts European capabilities in support of the European Commission’s Green Deal, Data strategy and Digital Strategy, complementing existing efforts in this direction from national and European environmental services like the national meteorological services and the Copernicus services.

A digital twin of the Earth system

A digital replica of the Earth system can represent a gamechanger in the context of climate change and the related increase of extreme weather events.

By using a fusion of cutting edge Earth-system physical and data-driven models and observations, it produces simulations which become indistinguishable from the reality, allowing to understand and simulate the complex interactions of the different phenomena which determine how our planet will evolve.

It also allows testing scenarios to assess the impact of human activities and to support actions in response to the environmental challenges the world is facing.

It can thus support decision-making and address the need for enhanced, and more interactive, prediction capabilities.

This is what motivated the development of a digital twin of the Earth system in the Destination Earth initiative.

DestinE Digital Twins

Several digital twins will be developed over the course of different phases of Destination Earth, with two high-priority digital twins currently being developed in the first phase. While the technology behind these two twins relies on the same foundations, the way they operate is slightly different.

ECMWF is responsible for implementing these digital twins, and the Digital Twin Engine, the software infrastructure needed to power the digital twins, on Europe’s most powerful supercomputers, those of the European joint undertaking (EuroHPC). For this purpose, ECMWF is closely working with over 60 partners from over 20 countries.

First two high-priority Digital Twins

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On weather-induced extremes

The objective of the Weather-Induced Extremes Digital Twin is to support the close to real-time response to meteorological, hydrological and air quality extremes, on a timescale of a few days ahead. This will be key in supporting response actions to environmental challenges posed by extreme events. The global continuous component of the weather induced extremes Digital Twin is implemented by ECMWF, and the on-demand regional component is implemented by a partnership led by Météo France.

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On climate adaptation

The objective of the Climate Change Adaptation Digital Twin is to support the efforts of defining and planning activities linked to climate change adaptation on multi-decadal timescales. This will be key in supporting the elaboration of policies for the Green Deal.

The climate digital twin is implemented by a partnership led by CSC.

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Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum. Maecenas sed diam eget risus varius blandit sit amet non magna. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper. Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Etiam porta sem malesuada magna mollis euismod.

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