NOCOS DT and Destination Earth

NOCOS DT explored, defined, and piloted digital twin technologies to support key sea ice impact sectors across the Nordic, Arctic, and Baltic regions in close alignment with the European Commission’s flagship initiative, Destination Earth (DestinE), and particularly its Climate Change Adaptation Digital Twin (Climate DT). In particular, NOCOS DT complements the digital twins that are currently being built under DestinE to achieve the overarching objective of developing a highly accurate digital model of the Earth – a digital twin of the Earth.

The NOCOS DT project has been a trailblazer in harnessing the power of the Destination Earth Climate Change Adaptation DT – being one the first to explore how the climate digital twin data can be applied to real-world challenges. NOCOS DT not only demonstrated the use of Destination Earth’s capabilities, but also showcased the value of collaboration across digital twin initiatives, paving the way for more integrated and impactful climate change adaptation solutions.

Irina Sandu
Director of Destination Earth
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts

Most of NOCOS DT’s models and applications were designed to use the data produced by Climate DT, making the project a trailblazer in cross-DT integration, and uniquely positioning it to push the boundaries of what digital twins can achieve for climate change adaptation. Destination Earth provided essential features that empowered the NOCOS DT, including high-resolution climate data that improved modeling of coastal and landfast sea ice processes, and tools for forecasting ship navigation risks. It enabled the derivation of ridged ice probabilities and detailed marginal ice zone statistics, while also supporting sea ice dynamics simulations. Additionally, the Climate DT’s processing toolbox facilitated access to climate model data for marine spatial planning, helping to enhance ecosystem resilience and inform EU policymaking.

In turn, NOCOS DT significantly contributed to Destination Earth by providing advanced tools and data for understanding and forecasting sea ice conditions. Its achievements include improved navigation safety in ice-covered waters, future projections of landfast ice, detailed information on ridged and marginal ice zones, and the development of the HiDEM code for simulating sea ice interactions with infrastructure and forecasting ice motion.

In addition to serving as a pilot case of an external project utilizing Climate Change Adaptation DT data, the NOCOS DT played a key role in bringing together Nordic and Baltic expertise. It also helped link topics of particular relevance to the Nordic region more closely with Destination Earth, thereby strengthening regional engagement and paving the way for future co-development.

Jenni Kontkanen
Development Manager in Digital Twin Technologies
CSC – IT Center for Science