DestinE's Digital Twin Dialogues

In this episode, expert guests Virginie Schwarz, General Director of Météo-France; Roland Potthast, Head of Numerical Weather Prediction at the German Weather Service (DWD); and Florian Pappenberger, Deputy Director General and Director of Forecasts and Services at ECMWF, discuss how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionising Europe’s weather prediction landscape. As AI continues to evolve, longstanding European collaborations in Numerical Weather Prediction, such as Eumetnet and Destination Earth, are playing a crucial role in managing this technological shift. The speakers explore the strategic impacts of AI-driven transformations and their broader implications for weather and climate forecasting.

Early career scientists are essential in driving Europe’s innovation forward. At ECMWF, within the DestinE initiative, many scientists working on the development of the digital twins and the Digital Twin Engine—key components of DestinE—are early in their careers. This first episode features three of them: Mathilde Leuridan (24), Cathal O'Brien(25), and Josh Kousal (27). It highlights their perspectives on key technological and societal issues as they contribute to building the digital twins of the Earth for the EU Destination Earth initiative. By offering opportunities to work with the latest advances in Earth system science, supercomputing, and AI, DestinE plays a...