RESEARCH
Earth Systems Lab: A nervous system for planet Earth
ESL 2026 will focus on developing planetary intelligence for our changing world, extending the research portfolio from monitoring to active stewardship.
To realise the goal of a mission control for planetary intelligence, there is a need to free up the bottleneck of data latency and size. Challenges within this pillar will explore real-time ML/AI compute onboard, such as filters on space-grade hardware to remove radio interference to deliver analysis ready data directly from orbit.
Challenges are designed as a coherent stack, from perceiving/sensing through to planning/deciding. Within the stack individual components will be brought together to provide a full picture for planetary intelligence, for example using model outputs and agentic reasoning to balance biodiversity, carbon, and economic trade-offs in real-time.
As we see more and more effects of a changing world, additional intelligence layers are needed to supplement our traditional modelling capability and translate these into impact. An example is fusing 3D cloud morphology with ocean and lightning data to predict rapid intensification of tropical storms, providing essential lead-time for coastal populations.