European Space Agency Digital Twin Earth (DTE) Framework: GRID4EARTH
This project, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), aims to improve the organisation, storage, and processing of large volumes of satellite data.
We are developing a new global data structure for handling Earth observation data from Sentinel satellites and the Destination Earth (DestinE) initiative. The approach is based on a Discrete Global Grid System (DGGS), which divides the Earth into a consistent grid, making satellite data easier to manage, compare, and analyse across regions and time.
The project combines the HEALPix global grid system with modern cloud-friendly storage technology (Zarr V3) to enable more efficient data access and processing. It will ensure compatibility with the widely used WGS84 coordinate system and define clear metadata standards so that datasets can be shared and reused more easily.
A key outcome of the project will be a fully documented workflow that allows this new grid-based data format to be integrated into existing Sentinel data processing systems without reducing performance or data quality.
Project is funded by the European Space Agency.
More information regarding the project
Principal investigator: Alexander Kmoch
Project period: 30.04.2025−30.10.2026
