Destination Earth: High-Performance Computing for Weather and Climate

Abstract

Destination Earth is the first grand effort to define and deploy digital twins of the Earth system. The European Commission is making this important, multiyear investment to develop this new type of information system, blending the physical and digital worlds. The scale of computational resources and data flows is unprecedented, and so are the challenges and the opportunities. Digital twins of Earth will support decision making faced with weather extremes and climate change adaptation as well as provide to users the means to interact, modify, and create their own tailored information. Building on the latest science and technology advances, this article describes the steps to realize the dream of preparing a more resilient society faced with unprecedented climate change in the decades to come.