CESOC COLLOQUIUM by Carlo Buontempo, Vincent-Henri Peuch and Jean-Noël Thépaut

The underpinning vision of the new ECMWF strategy 2021-2030 is to carry out cutting-edge science and to deliver world-leading weather predictions and Earth System monitoring products in close collaboration with the members of the European Meteorological  Infrastructure, for a safe and prosperous society.

This seminar will provide an overview of how ECMWF’s  strategy is organised to respond to this vision, in particular in the areas of its ‘science and technology’ and ‘impact’  high-level goals.

Beyond cutting edge science and the operational delivery of numerical weather forecasts and associated services, ECMWF is also playing a key role in major European  programmes, which rely on its long-term expertise on Earth Observation and digital infrastructures.

Copernicus is the European Union (EU) flagship  programme for monitoring the Earth’s climate and environment using space and in-situ observations. Copernicus delivers open and free-of-charge operational data and information services on a range of topical areas.  Based upon these baseline services, many value-added  products can be developed and tailored for specific users both in the public and commercial domains.

Copernicus includes six core thematic services:
Atmosphere monitoring, Land Monitoring, Marine Environment Monitoring, Emergency Management, Security and Climate Change.

All Copernicus core Services heavily rely on the combined availability of satellite, in-situ and modelling information to derive the products and services across the thematic  areas mentioned above. This presentation will also  provide an overview of the State-of-Play of the two  Copernicus Services entrusted by the European Commission to ECMWF: C3S (Copernicus Climate  Change Service) and CAMS (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service), including the new development areas, such as the CO2 emissions Monitoring and  Verification Support Capacity.

Last, Destination Earth – DestinE – is a new initiative of the European Commission to develop highly realistic digital twins, or replica, of the Earth System using  cutting-edge advances in Information Technologies. Under the European Commission’s leadership, and in  coordination with the Member States, scientific communities and other stakeholders, ECMWF is one of  three entrusted entities tasked (together with ESA and EUMETSAT) with delivering the first phase of the  programme by 2024.

Our role is to build the ‘digital twins engine’ software and data infrastructure. ECMWF will also be responsible for using the digital twins engine to deliver the first two high-priority digital twins. The digital twin on “Weather-Induced and Geophysical Extremes” will provide capabilities for the assessment and prediction of environmental extremes. The digital twin on “Climate Change Adaptation” will support the generation of  analytical insights and testing of predictive scenarios in support of climate adaptation and mitigation policies at  multi-decadal timescales, covering both regional and national levels. The presentation will describe the  involvement of ECMWF in this initiative and the developments foreseen within the next couple of years. It will also highlight the synergies with the Copernicus: the two programmes combined will bring a unique in the world and decisive contribution to the realisation of the high ambitions of the European Green Deal.