ESSD cover
Chief editors: Kirsten Elger, Tobias Gerken, Sibylle K. Hassler, Conrad Jackisch, Graciela Raga, François G. Schmitt, Hanqin Tian, Baptiste Vandecrux & Yuyu Zhou
eISSN: ESSD 1866-3516, ESSDD 1866-3591

Earth System Science Data (ESSD) is an international, interdisciplinary journal for the publication of articles on original research data (sets), furthering the reuse of high-quality data of benefit to Earth system sciences. The editors encourage submissions on original data or data collections which are of sufficient quality and have potential to contribute to these aims. The journal maintains sections for regular-length articles, brief communications (e.g. on additions to data sets) and commentaries, as well as review articles and special issues.

This short commentary draws on ESSD author, reviewer and editor experiences over its first 10 years of operation to define guidelines, requirements and benefits of the ESSD processes.

News

30 Jun 2026 The Norwegian University of Science and Technology partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications has signed a new institutional agreement with Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Please read more.

30 Jun 2026 The Norwegian University of Science and Technology partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications has signed a new institutional agreement with Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Please read more.

11 Jun 2026 Indicators of Global Climate Change 2025: annual update of key indicators of the state of the climate system and human influence

ESSD announces the publication of an update to IPCC's most recent assessment. Please read more.

11 Jun 2026 Indicators of Global Climate Change 2025: annual update of key indicators of the state of the climate system and human influence

ESSD announces the publication of an update to IPCC's most recent assessment. Please read more.

07 May 2026 Temporary unavailability of article and preprint PDFs due to technical issues

Since Tuesday, 5 May, 06:30 CET, we have been experiencing technical issues caused by high demand on our systems, which have significantly affected our journal libraries. To maintain platform stability and ensure continued access to critical services, all preprint and journal article PDFs were temporarily restricted, while HTML full-text content and XML files remained available. Since Thursday, 7 May, 08:30 CET, we have made the preprint PDFs available again; however, journal article PDFs remain restricted until the technical issues have been resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to restore full PDF access as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

07 May 2026 Temporary unavailability of article and preprint PDFs due to technical issues

Since Tuesday, 5 May, 06:30 CET, we have been experiencing technical issues caused by high demand on our systems, which have significantly affected our journal libraries. To maintain platform stability and ensure continued access to critical services, all preprint and journal article PDFs were temporarily restricted, while HTML full-text content and XML files remained available. Since Thursday, 7 May, 08:30 CET, we have made the preprint PDFs available again; however, journal article PDFs remain restricted until the technical issues have been resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to restore full PDF access as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

Highlight articles

14 Aug 2026
A global high-resolution dataset of snowmelt runoff onset timing from Sentinel-1 SAR, 2015–2024
Eric Gagliano, David Shean, and Scott Henderson
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 5871–5894, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-5871-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-5871-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
29 Jul 2026
Munition piles in the German Baltic Sea: inventory and maritime hazard perspectives
Torsten Frey, Mareike Keller, Jochen Mohrmann, Alexander Pechmann, Samar Ensenbach, and Jens Greinert
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 5563–5581, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-5563-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-5563-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
22 Jul 2026
Lagoon temperature and hydrodynamics of Reao Atoll (Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia) before and during the 2024 El-Niño marine heatwave
Esther Ladet, Carla Chevillard, Romain Le Gendre, Thomas Trophime, Sébastien Petton, and Simon Van Wynsberge
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 5283–5302, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-5283-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-5283-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement

Recent papers

21 Aug 2026
Correction of the Observatoire Haute Provence electrochemical concentration cell (ECC) ozonesonde long-term data record over the 2002–2007 period
Sachiko Okamoto, Gérard Ancellet, Sophie Godin-Beekmann, and Renaud Bodichon
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 5939–5950, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-5939-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-5939-2026, 2026
Short summary
21 Aug 2026
A compilation of global bio-optical in situ data for ocean-colour satellite applications – version four
Salem Ibrahim Salem, Andre Valente, Shubha Sathyendranath, Andrei Chuprin, Théo Renard, Jaime Pitarch, Ruth Airs, Moreno Ana, Maria-Manuel Angelico, David Antoine, Robert Arnone, Florinda Artuso, Paulo O. Oliveira, William Balch, Kathryn Barker, Ray Barlow, Simon Bélanger, Marco Bellacicco, Jean-François Berthon, Şükrü Beşiktepe, Francesco Bignami, Yngve Borsheim, Astrid Bracher, Federica Braga, Vittorio Brando, Robert J. W. Brewin, Vanda Brotas, Elisabetta Canuti, Francisco P. Chavez, Andrés Cianca, Hervé Claustre, Lesley Clementson, Simone Colella, Raul Costa, Cristina Nunes, Richard Crout, Emmanuel Devred, Annalisa Di Cicco, Federico Falcini, Ivan Farace, Afonso Ferreira, Scott Freeman, Robert Frouin, Carlos García-Soto, Isabella Giardina, Stuart W. Gibb, Arthur Gleason, Ralf Goericke, Richard Gould, Michael Grant, Nathalie Guillocheau, Hiroto Higa, Stanford B. Hooker, Chuamin Hu, Joji Ishizaka, Thomas Jackson, Mati Kahru, Milton Kampel, Bokyung Kim, Holger Klein, Piotr Kowalczuk, Susanne Kratzer, Raphael Kudela, Antonia Lai, Rosario Lavezza, Jesus Ledesma, Huiwon Lee, Steven Lohrenz, Hubert Loisel, Vivian Lutz, Antonio Mannino, Francesca Margiotta, Victor Martinez-Vicente, Salvatore Marullo, Luca Massi, Patricia Matrai, Atsushi Matsuoka, David McKee, Chiara Melillo, Carlos B. Mendes, Brian G. Mitchell, Tiffany Moisan, Enrique Montes, Frank Muller-Karger, Aimee Neeley, Michael Novak, Leonie O'Dowd, Michael Ondrusek, Emanuele Organelli, Heeyoon Park, Trevor Platt, Francesca Polonelli, Alex Poulton, Mariella Ragni, Michel Repecaud, Maurizio Ribera d’Alcalà, Tamara Rodriguez-Ramos, Rüdiger Röttgers, Manuel Ruiz-Villarreal, Michela Sammartino, Rosalia Santoleri, Gian Marco Scarpa, Thomas Schroeder, Valeria Segura, Timothy Smyth, Denise Smythe-Wright, Heidi M. Sosik, Joanna Stoń-Egiert, Malcolm Taberner, Jing Tan, Rob Thomas, Crystal Thomas, Gavin Tilstone, Andreia Tracana, Michael Twardowski, Vincenzo Vellucci, Gianluca Volpe, Kenneth Voss, Jeremy Werdell, Marcel Wernand, Bozena Wojtasiewicz, Simon Wright, Sunmi Yang, Giuseppe Zibordi, Maria Laura Zoffoli, and Steve Groom
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-539,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-539, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
21 Aug 2026
Multi-model hydrological seasonal forecasts for Europe in the C3S climate data store
Peter Berg, Denica Bozhinova, Yiheng Du, Yeshewatesfa Hundecha, Tobias Lagander, Ursula McKnight, Lisanne Nauta, Spyridon Paparrizos, Ilias Pechlivanidis, and Wei Yang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-604,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-604, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
21 Aug 2026
The Hyperspectral Bio-Optical Observations Sailing on Tara (HyperBOOST) dataset
Margherita Costanzo, Vittorio Ernesto Brando, Federico Falcini, Christian Marchese, Luis Gonzalez Vilas, Emmanuel Boss, David Doxaran, Paola Potin, Stefan Simis, Tom Jordan, John Wood, Chiara Santinelli, Giancarlo Bachi, Giovanni Checcucci, Claudia Tropea, Marco Carloni, Mirco Guerrazzi, Silvia Valsecchi, Valtere Evangelista, Marie Helene Rio, Javier Alonso Concha, Paola Bertucci, Colomban de Vargas, Victor Martinez-Vicente, and the Tara Europa Team, the TREC-Tara Europa Operation and Management Team, and the TREC Consortium Coordinators
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-623,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-623, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
20 Aug 2026
A multi-decadal global Landsat-derived dataset of forest fire patches from 1984–2022
Jiaying He, Xin Zou, Weihan Zhang, Quan Duan, Ronggao Liu, Yang Liu, Jinwei Dong, Chaoyang Wu, Wei Li, and Chao Wu
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 5915–5937, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-5915-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-5915-2026, 2026
Short summary

Notice on APC invoices

In accordance with current European restrictions, Copernicus Publications does not step into business relations with and issue APC invoices (articles processing charges) to Russian and Belarusian institutions. The peer-review process and scientific exchange of our journals including preprint posting is not affected. However, these restrictions require that the first contact (contractual partner of Copernicus) has an affiliation and invoice address outside Russia or Belarus.