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
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
31 Aug 2026
Nitrous oxide and methane concentrations and air-sea fluxes in undersampled areas of the Mediterranean basin
Mercedes de la Paz, Susana Flecha, Fatima Zohra Bouthir, Milad Fahkri, Abed El Rahman Hassoun, Valeria Ibello, Korhan Özkan, Fiz F. Pérez, Adil Chair, and Iris E. Hendriks
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 6207–6224, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6207-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6207-2026, 2026
Short summary
28 Aug 2026
Integrated dataset of atmospheric bioaerosols over east Asia
Zhongwei Huang, Wenjin Zhang, Qing Dong, Teruya Maki, Yongkai Wang, Yuanzong Ji, Fanli Xue, Xuefei Huo, Da Lu, Dongdong Wang, Jinsen Shi, Jianrong Bi, and Jianping Huang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 6191–6206, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6191-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6191-2026, 2026
Short summary
25 Aug 2026
Grounded icebergs around Antarctica: a high-resolution dataset derived from deep learning and Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar
Kaihong Jiao, Alexander D. Fraser, Johannes Lohse, Pat Wongpan, Caitlin Adams, and Alexander C. Bradley
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 6017–6041, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6017-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6017-2026, 2026
Short summary
More highlight articles 
01 Sep 2026
Global surface mining and land reclamation of time series from 1985–2022
Sucheng Xu, Jiatong Zhou, Kechao Wang, Stefan Giljum, Victor Maus, Tim T. Werner, Liang Tang, Jiwang Guo, and Wu Xiao
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 6293–6320, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6293-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6293-2026, 2026
Short summary
01 Sep 2026
A global 30 m disturbance-recovery age dataset for young natural and planted forests (1985–2024)
Yan Wang, Hengbin Wang, Chaoran Liang, Xiyi Li, Zhe Liu, Xiaodong Zhang, Shaoming Li, Jinming Yang, and Yuanyuan Zhao
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 6225–6249, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6225-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6225-2026, 2026
Short summary
01 Sep 2026
Spatial patterns of global land management intensity are influenced by socioeconomic, biophysical and behavioural factors
Ankita Saxena, Calum Brown, Karina Winkler, Almut Arneth, and Mark Rounsevell
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 6251–6292, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6251-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6251-2026, 2026
Short summary
31 Aug 2026
| Highlight paper
Nitrous oxide and methane concentrations and air-sea fluxes in undersampled areas of the Mediterranean basin
Mercedes de la Paz, Susana Flecha, Fatima Zohra Bouthir, Milad Fahkri, Abed El Rahman Hassoun, Valeria Ibello, Korhan Özkan, Fiz F. Pérez, Adil Chair, and Iris E. Hendriks
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 6207–6224, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6207-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6207-2026, 2026
Short summary
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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.
