What is Digital Earth today? A technology overview

This presentation explores the current landscape of Digital Earth (DE) technologies, highlighting advancements that support the global analysis and use of Earth observation (EO) data. Key components include the integration of Analysis Ready Data (ARD), machine learning, and data cubes, supported by platforms like Digital Earth Africa, Copernicus Data Space, Brazil Data Cube, and Microsoft's Planetary Computer. The session emphasizes the shift from building standalone cloud services to leveraging standardized access protocols (notably STAC) and existing cloud ecosystems (e.g., AWS, CDSE). It outlines software solutions such as Google Earth Engine, OpenEO, Open Data Cube, eo-learn, and SITS, comparing their flexibility, required technical expertise, and interoperability. The talk concludes by urging a focus on data exploration tools, best practices, and investing in people over infrastructure to effectively harness DE's potential.