Digital Twin Earth Precursors

First defined by Michael Grieves in 2002, Digital Twins have emerged as a new paradigm in engineering over the last 20 years. There are now many types of Digital Twin proposed, extending from manufactured products, through business operations to smart cities. Singapore, for example, is perhaps the most famous example of this technology brought to life. Digital Twins typically consist of several defining features, which also apply to the DTE:

  • They are based on a physical system and use digital data to provide real-time insights and visualizations to users, allowing them to make better decisions.
  • They incorporate a range of different data sources, typically including configuration data and near real-time data, for instance through IOT.
  • They incorporate multi-disciplinary, multi-scale models (typically, but not limited to, physics and engineering simulations) which allow the ability to interact with the data and create new scenarios.
  • They provide high level visualizations and analytic functionality providing features like dashboards and data mining.

Digital Twins are normally built for a specific purpose and to enable data sharing in a community, although they are not essentially thematic. ESA’s Digital Twin Earth (DTE) initiative is an exciting and ambitious opportunity, partly driven in response to the EU Destination Earth initiative, to apply the concept of DTs using EO data for regional and global scale systems. The precursor project aims create a roadmap towards a fully integrated DTE by exploring Digital Twins in a range of thematic areas:

ESA’s aim in selecting these contracts is to stimulate the community by bring together different expertise and emerging capabilities in ESA EOEP Participating States and establishing a solid scientific and technical basis to realise the Destination Earth vision and make a firm first step towards Digital Twin Earth.