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.

15 Jun 2026 The NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications is delighted to announce a new institutional agreement with NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Please read more.

15 Jun 2026 The NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications is delighted to announce a new institutional agreement with NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). 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.

Highlight articles

16 Jul 2026
TundraFlux: a database of ecosystem respiration with biotic and abiotic metadata from Arctic and alpine tundra warming experiments
Sarah Schwieger, Jan Dietrich, Mats P. Björkman, Judith M. Sarneel, Bowen Li, Joel White, Inge H. J. Althuizen, Christina Biasi, Robert G. Björk, Hanna Böhner, Brage Bremset Hansen, Michele Carbognani, Giorgio Chiari, Casper T. Christiansen, Elisabeth J. Cooper, Hans Cornelissen, Ludovica D'Imperio, Ellen Dorrepaal, Bo Elberling, Patrick Faubert, Ned Fetcher, T'ai G. W. Forte, Joseph Gaudard, Konstantin Gavazov, Zhen-Huan Guan, Jón Guðmundsson, Siri V. Haugum, Jin-Sheng He, Caitlin Hicks Pries, Mark Hovenden, Simone I. Lang, Gus Jespersen, Ingibjörg S. Jónsdóttir, Ji Young Jung, Olga Khitun, Birgitte Kortegaard Danielsen, Richard Lamprecht, Mathilde Le Moullec, Hanna Lee, Maija E. Marushchak, Anders Michelsen, Tariq Munir, Eero Myrsky, Kevin K. Newsham, Marion Nyberg, Steven F. Oberbauer, Paulo Olivas, Johan Olofsson, Hlynur Óskarsson, Thomas C. Parker, Matteo Petit Bon, Alessandro Petraglia, Emily Pickering Pedersen, Katrine Raundrup, Nynne R. Ravn, Riikka Rinnan, Heidi Rodenhizer, Ingvild Ryde, Alejandro Salazar, Niels M. Schmidt, Ted Schuur, Sofie Sjögersten, Cecilie Skov Nielsen, Sari Stark, Maria Strack, Jianwu Tang, Sylvia Toet, Anne Tolvanen, Maria Väisänen, Richard Van Logtestijn, Vigdis Vandvik, Carolina Voigt, Josefine Walz, Jeffrey M. Welker, Yuanhe Yang, Henni Ylänne, and Sybryn L. Maes
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 4965–4982, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4965-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4965-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
03 Jul 2026
NZ-BeachTopo30: a national-scale and full-coverage 30 m beach topography dataset for New Zealand reconstructed by fusing ICESat-2 and Sentinel-2
Yuhao Wang, Hao Xu, Nan Xu, Edward Park, Xuejiao Hou, Jiayi Fang, Zhen Zhang, Yongjing Mao, Huichao Xin, Chunpeng Chen, Yinxia Cao, Yifu Ou, Xinyue Gu, Wenyu Li, Xiaojuan Liu, Conghong Huang, and Qingquan Li
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 4563–4591, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4563-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4563-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
11 Jun 2026
Indicators of Global Climate Change 2025: annual update of key indicators of the state of the climate system and human influence
Piers M. Forster, Tristram Walsh, Chris Smith, William F. Lamb, Robin Lamboll, Christophe Cassou, Mathias Hauser, Zeke Hausfather, June-Yi Lee, Matthew D. Palmer, Karina von Schuckmann, Aimée B. A. Slangen, Sophie Szopa, Blair Trewin, Jeongeun Yun, Nathan P. Gillett, Stuart Jenkins, H. Damon Matthews, Krishnan Raghavan, Aurélien Ribes, Joeri Rogelj, Debbie Rosen, Xuebin Zhang, Myles Allen, Robbie M. Andrew, Chris Atkinson, Richard A. Betts, Antonio Bombelli, Samantha N. Burgess, Lijing Cheng, Helen E. Claxton, Pierre Friedlingstein, Thomas L. Frölicher, Catia M. Domingues, Thomas Gasser, Catherine H. Gregory, Rachel M. Hoesly, Daniel Huppmann, Masayoshi Ishii, Christopher Kadow, Alexia Karwat, John Kennedy, Rachel E. Killick, Mahesh V. M. Kovilakam, Paul B. Krummel, Xin Lan, Jean-François Lamarque, Aurélien Liné, Belén Martín-Míguez, Didier P. Monselesan, Colin Morice, Jens Mühle, Pino Mussak, Glen P. Peters, Anna Pirani, Julia Pongratz, Matthew Rigby, Robert Rohde, Abhishek Savita, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Steven J. Smith, Ghassan Taha, Caterina Tassone, Peter Thorne, Christopher Wells, Luke M. Western, Guido R. van der Werf, Susan E. Wijffels, Marco Zecchetto, Junting Zhong, Xiao-Ye Zhang, Valérie Masson-Delmotte, and Panmao Zhai
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 3889–3933, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3889-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3889-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement

Recent papers

16 Jul 2026
BOWTIE: ship-based measurements of atmosphere and ocean within the moist tropical Atlantic
Hans Segura, Allison A. Wing, Heike Kalesse-Los, Ruben Carrasco, James H. Ruppert Jr., Anna Trosits, Louise Nuijens, Felix Ament, Daniel Blandfort, Michael M. Bell, Pierre Bosser, Delián Colón-Burgos, Geet George, Joelle Habib, Jochen Horstmann, Friedhelm Jansen, Lukas Kluft, Robert Kopte, Klas Ove Möller, Peristera Paschou, Hauke Schmidt, Michael Schlundt, Ilya Serikov, Martin Stelzner, Elizabeth J. Thompson, Werenfrid Wimmer, Marcus Dengler, and Daniel Klocke
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-343,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-343, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
16 Jul 2026
SwissPhenoCam: A country-scale dataset of tree-level phenocam greenness captures species-specific phenological variation along elevation gradients in Switzerland
Vivien Sainte Fare Garnot, J. Jelle Lever, Maaike de Boer, Lynsay Spafford, Yann Vitasse, Christian Sigg, Barbara Pietragalla, Roman Zweifel, Arthur Gessler, and Jan Dirk Wegner
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-435,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-435, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
16 Jul 2026
Mercury dataset over the Third Pole
Shichang Kang, Jie Huang, Qianggong Zhang, Junming Guo, Xiufeng Yin, Shiwei Sun, Xuejun Sun, Lekhendra Tripathee, Sabur Abdullaev, Wenjun Tang, Yi Zhang, Xiwen Miao, Liujian Liao, and Lusheng Che
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 4943–4963, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4943-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4943-2026, 2026
Short summary
16 Jul 2026
| Highlight paper
TundraFlux: a database of ecosystem respiration with biotic and abiotic metadata from Arctic and alpine tundra warming experiments
Sarah Schwieger, Jan Dietrich, Mats P. Björkman, Judith M. Sarneel, Bowen Li, Joel White, Inge H. J. Althuizen, Christina Biasi, Robert G. Björk, Hanna Böhner, Brage Bremset Hansen, Michele Carbognani, Giorgio Chiari, Casper T. Christiansen, Elisabeth J. Cooper, Hans Cornelissen, Ludovica D'Imperio, Ellen Dorrepaal, Bo Elberling, Patrick Faubert, Ned Fetcher, T'ai G. W. Forte, Joseph Gaudard, Konstantin Gavazov, Zhen-Huan Guan, Jón Guðmundsson, Siri V. Haugum, Jin-Sheng He, Caitlin Hicks Pries, Mark Hovenden, Simone I. Lang, Gus Jespersen, Ingibjörg S. Jónsdóttir, Ji Young Jung, Olga Khitun, Birgitte Kortegaard Danielsen, Richard Lamprecht, Mathilde Le Moullec, Hanna Lee, Maija E. Marushchak, Anders Michelsen, Tariq Munir, Eero Myrsky, Kevin K. Newsham, Marion Nyberg, Steven F. Oberbauer, Paulo Olivas, Johan Olofsson, Hlynur Óskarsson, Thomas C. Parker, Matteo Petit Bon, Alessandro Petraglia, Emily Pickering Pedersen, Katrine Raundrup, Nynne R. Ravn, Riikka Rinnan, Heidi Rodenhizer, Ingvild Ryde, Alejandro Salazar, Niels M. Schmidt, Ted Schuur, Sofie Sjögersten, Cecilie Skov Nielsen, Sari Stark, Maria Strack, Jianwu Tang, Sylvia Toet, Anne Tolvanen, Maria Väisänen, Richard Van Logtestijn, Vigdis Vandvik, Carolina Voigt, Josefine Walz, Jeffrey M. Welker, Yuanhe Yang, Henni Ylänne, and Sybryn L. Maes
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 4965–4982, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4965-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4965-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
16 Jul 2026
PlanetGSD 1.0: a cross-planetary grain-size distribution dataset from the Earth, the Moon, and the Mars
Jun Zhang and Yong Li
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 4983–5008, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4983-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4983-2026, 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.