ESA's Φ-Week: Digital Twin Earth, Quantum Computing and AI Take Center Stage

Digital Twin Earth will help visualize, monitor, and forecast natural and human activity on the planet. The model will be able to monitor the health of the planet, perform simulations of Earth's interconnected system with human behavior, and support the field of sustainable development, therefore, reinforcing Europe's efforts for a better environment in order to respond to the urgent challenges and targets addressed by the Green Deal. ESA's 2020 Φ-week event kicked off this morning with a series of stimulating speeches on Digital Twin Earth, updates on Φ-sat-1, which was successfully launched into orbit earlier this month, and an exciting new initiative involving quantum computing. The third edition of the Φ-week event, which is entirely virtual, focuses on how Earth observation can contribute to the concept of Digital Twin Earth – a dynamic, digital replica of our planet which accurately mimics Earth's behavior. Constantly fed with Earth observation data, combined with in situ measurements and artificial intelligence, the Digital Twin Earth provides an accurate representation of the past, present, and future changes of our world.