Research

Speaker: Thomas Huang, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

An Earth System Digital Twin (ESDT) is a dynamic, interactive, digital replica of the state and temporal evolution of Earth systems. It integrates multiple models along with observational data, and connects them with analysis, AI, and visualization tools. Together, it enables users to explore historical long-term record, the current state of the Earth system, and predict future conditions by running hypothetical scenarios to understand how the system would evolve under various assumptions. Given the Earth System is highly interconnected and complex, it would be difficult and costly to attempt to develop a sustainable standalone system. The NASA Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) program’s Integrated Digital Earth Analysis System (IDEAS) project has been developing a professional open-source framework for ESDT to formalize the information model, platform interfaces to streamline the integration of observation artifacts, advanced numerical models, AI capabilities, and dynamic data acquisition. The motivation is to establish a federation of interoperable ESDTs to exchange of data, models from global to regional scale, and scenario-based predictions. This talk provides an overview of the IDEAS framework and two IDEAS-based digital twins, a federated digital twin for flood prediction and analysis being developed between NASA and the Space for Climate Observatory (SCO) FloodDAM Digital Twin effort, and an Air Quality Information Center that includes support for wildfire, Greenhouse Gas, and health impact.