The European Space Agency ESA has awarded three French consulting and technology companies’ contracts to enhance its flagship DestinE platform with artificial intelligence technologies. The move forms part of the overall endeavor by the European Commission in creating high-precision digital twins of the Earth. This digital twin is intended to aid policymakers in tracking the impact of both natural and human activities on the planet to simulate different scenarios for future decision-making regarding policies.

Climate-related issues will form the core focus for Destination Earth, which will provide valuable information to scientists, political leaders, and European decision-makers about the effects of climate change. It will be modeling impacts of extreme weather events, sea level rise, changes in the regimes of rainfall, droughts, and marine biodiversity. Such insights are vital to building effective climate adaptation and mitigation strategies.

The first release of Destination Earth took place in June this year and included two digital twins on extreme weather and climate change, along with several operational applications. In the next six years, the platform will be extended with more digital twins and is expected to lead to the complete digital replica of Earth by 2030.

This implies that ESA is implementing AI technologies including machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI in the platform to enlarge the scope of the platform’s functionality. The integration aims at making the platform considerably more functional but also easier to develop. The first AI project was launched for twelve months with its partners Atos, Mews Partners, and ACRI-ST.

Atos is an international leader in IT consulting with rich experience in the space sector and consultancy Mews Partners is established in both France and Germany and employs 300 people. Analysis of satellite imagery for earth observation is the core of ACRI-ST. By forming this partnership, these three firms will design, build, and deploy AI technologies within the Destination Earth infrastructure so that developers can use the advanced algorithms and models and the tools for collaboration.

“We are honored ESA puts its confidence in our consortium,” said Raoul Roth, chief executive officer of Atos in France, expressing optimism about the cooperation.