15.01.2025

With a duration of four years and a budget of around 15 million euros, TerraDT is part of the EU initiative Destination Earth (DestinE), which aims to provide modular and interoperable DT components for high-resolution global climate simulations.

TerraDT will model the impacts of glaciers, sea ice, vegetation and aerosol particles, among other things, on the Earth’s climate in more detail than ever before. The project's climate simulations reach resolutions of 10 kilometers. This requires a significant amount of computing resources., with the EuroHPC supercomputers LUMI in Finland and Mare Nostrum 5 in Spain playing a central role.

The DKRZ is involved in two aspects of TerraDT: On the one hand, the DKRZ team offers scientists support in optimizing the various models so that they can be run as efficiently as possible on complex HPC systems. On the other hand, the work packages are managed on the coupling and interfaces between the various components of the Earth system. In this context, the YAC software will be further developed to enable further coupling with the ICON model. In addition, in cooperation with European partners, generic concepts for coupling and connecting components of the Earth system are being researched, which should enable a modular system in the future through adapted software engineering.

The digital twin is not only intended to advance scientific climate research, but also to support decision-making at the local level. Possible applications include the planning of shipping routes, coastal protection and the design of urban green spaces.

More information on the project website: https://terradt.eu/