EUMETSAT to continue developing critical infrastructure for Destination Earth

The EUMETSAT Council has approved the organisation’s continuing involvement in the Destination Earth (DestinE). Phase Three of the EU’s flagship initiative will commence later this year and will see EUMETSAT further boosting the capabilities of the vital Data Lake component.

Launched by the European Commission in 2022, DestinE is centred around creating highly accurate models or digital twins of our planet that can simulate and predict the interaction between natural phenomena and human activities. The initiative is implemented by three entities, EUMETSAT, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). While ESA and the ECMWF are responsible respectively for the DestinE Platform and first two Digital Twins, EUMETSAT has undertaken the development of the DestinE Data Lake.

The Data Lake provides the data layer that underpins DestinE and connects with the three sites of the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) where the ECMWF runs the digital twins. Based on a European distributed data infrastructure and associated functions and services, the Data Lake allows users to tap into various data resources by enabling data processing close to where information is produced and stored.

The initiative is currently in its second phase of implementation. By the end of Phase Two, EUMETSAT will have delivered, via its implementation industry consortium led by CloudFerro together with CS-Group and the Earth Observation Data Centre (EODC), the full operational capabilities and services of the Destination Earth Data Lake. This marks a significant milestone for DestinE overall.

“With the confirmation from the EUMETSAT Council of our continuing participation in Destination Earth, we stand ready to build on our successes from the first two phases and work with our fellow entrusted entities to progress the system’s operational maturity,” said EUMETSAT Director-General Phil Evans. “The Data Lake is the essential binding layer between the Digital Twins, the DestinE Platform and users, and the infrastructure and services that EUMETSAT has engineered, based on industrial standards, are already operational and placing an enormous wealth of data and computing resources at the fingertips of European institutional users, scientists and analysts.”

These key services provided by EUMETSAT, known as Edge Services, were released to users in early 2025 and have seen a steady growth in take-up. Over 50 Edge Service access requests, originating from a huge diversity of impact sectors, have been received to date from organisations, including academic institutions, public authorities and SMEs. Performance has also been impressive, with all Data Lake services scoring over 99% for availability.

The next chapter in the evolution of the DestinE Data Lake will bring about a series of further advances. “After having delivered the full operational capabilities of the Destination Earth Data Lake by the end of Phase Two, the three top priorities for EUMETSAT in Phase Three are the continuation and maturing of Data Lake operations, reassessing and preparing for the future, and focusing on fostering institutional user uptake of DestinE,” explained Lothar Wolf, EUMETSAT’s Destination Earth Programme Manager.

“This will be complemented with further incremental enhancements of the Data Lake and its services, in particular in support of AI activities in the context of DestinE and the emerging European AI factories. The planned improvements will prepare for the further evolution of DestinE and AI-related activities planned as part of the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework.”