The accelerated change in our planet due to human activities has led to grand societal challenges including health crises, intensified extreme weather events, food security, environmental injustice, etc. Digital twin systems combined with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and edge computing provide opportunities to support planning and decision-making to address these challenges. Digital twins for Earth systems (DT4ESs) are defined as the digital representation of the complex integrated Earth system including both natural processes and human activities. They have the potential to enable a diverse range of users to explore what-if scenarios across spatial and temporal scales to improve our understanding, prediction, mitigation, and adaptation to grand societal challenges. The 4th NOAA AI Workshop convened around 100 members who are developing or interested in participating in the development of DT4ES to discuss a shared community vision and path forward on fostering a future ecosystem of interoperable DT4ES. This paper summarizes the workshop discussions around DT4ES. We first defined the foundational features of a viable digital twins for Earth system that can be used to guide the development of various use cases of DT4ES. Finally, we made practical recommendations for the community on different aspects of collaboration in order to enable a future ecosystem of interoperable DT4ES, including equity-centered use case development, community-driven investigation of interoperability for DT4ES, trust-oriented co-development, and developing a community of practice.

翻译：人类活动导致的地球环境加速变化，引发了健康危机、极端天气事件加剧、粮食安全、环境不公正等重大社会挑战。结合人工智能与边缘计算等新兴技术的数字孪生系统，为应对这些挑战提供了支持规划与决策的机遇。地球系统数字孪生（DT4ES）被定义为包含自然过程与人类活动的复杂集成地球系统的数字化表征，有望使各类用户探索跨时空尺度的假设情景，从而深化对重大社会挑战的理解、预测、缓解与适应能力。第四届NOAA人工智能研讨会汇聚了约百名正在或有意参与DT4ES开发的专家，围绕构建可互操作的DT4ES未来生态系统的共同愿景与实施路径展开讨论。本文总结了研讨会上关于DT4ES的讨论内容：首先定义了可行地球系统数字孪生的基础特征，这些特征可指导DT4ES各类应用场景的开发；随后从协作的多个维度提出实用性建议，以推动可互操作的DT4ES生态系统建设，包括以公平为中心的应用场景开发、社区驱动的DT4ES互操作性研究、以信任为导向的协同共建，以及建设实践社区。