QUANTUM COMPUTING FOR EARTH OBSERVATION STUDY (QC4EO STUDY)

The main objective of this QC4EO study is to investigate whether Quantum Computing (QC) can provide a quantum advantage to Earth Observation (EO) applications within a medium to long timeframe (between the next 3-5 to 15 years). Specifically, the study aims to answer the following questions: How can QC enhance EO applications? What hardware developments are required to achieve this quantum advantage?

The QC4EO study will address these  research questions with its multidisciplinary consortium, made up of partners with different competencies, each one a leader in its area. In this way, it is possible to reach a broad view, ranging from state- of-the-art technologies (with related bottlenecks) and commercial needs to pure research and development of innovative solutions that can be potential breakthroughs.To better understand the potential of QC in the EO sector, we will explore a range of scenarios involving EO data, both radar and optical, from mission planning to raw data processing and analysis. We will identify a subset of scenarios (i.e., Use Cases (UCs)) that could benefit from QC techniques, prioritizing those that are most relevant to the EO sector. Furthermore, we will propose an architectural design for a potentially hybrid solution. Each selected UC will be traced back to a corresponding computational problem and then tackled with different quantum algorithms. We will assess each architecture on several key parameters relevant to the implementation of the different algorithms. We will provide a comprehensive overview of existing QC technologies, with a particular focus on integrated systems and QC machines. Based on the machines roadmaps obtained by WP3, we will be able to derive a feasible timeline to process each of the identified UCs.