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: 1866-3516

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.

02 Apr 2026 Australia's terrestrial industrial footprint and ecological intactness

The authors developed two datasets representing human industrial pressures and ecological intactness across Australia's landscapes. These datasets fill a long-standing gap in national-scale pressure mapping, providing key insights into human disturbance of the environment. Please read more.

02 Apr 2026 Australia's terrestrial industrial footprint and ecological intactness

The authors developed two datasets representing human industrial pressures and ecological intactness across Australia's landscapes. These datasets fill a long-standing gap in national-scale pressure mapping, providing key insights into human disturbance of the environment. Please read more.

Highlight articles

03 Nov 2026
The Standardized Soil Moisture-Temperature Compound Index (SSTCI): daily scale global data set and event catalogue for compound dry-hot extremes (1961–2023)
Rukhshinda Aftab, Daniel Fiifi Tawia Hagan, Guojie Wang, Baoying Shan, Syed Husnain Shah, Zhou Chensi, Wei Xikun, Fareeha Siddique, Ali Hasan Jaffry, and Emmanuel Yeboah
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 7981–8002, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-7981-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-7981-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
15 Oct 2026
Tracking recent extremes and interannual variability of global fire emissions using a near-real-time extension to the Global Fire Emissions Database
Yang Chen, Guido R. van der Werf, Mingquan Mu, Dave van Wees, Joanne V. Hall, Louis Giglio, Roland Vernooij, Douglas C. Morton, Li Xu, Tianjia Liu, Rebecca C. Scholten, Shane R. Coffield, Melanie B. Follette-Cook, Lesley Ott, and James T. Randerson
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 7535–7555, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-7535-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-7535-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
06 Oct 2026
A global consistent database of plankton and detritus from in situ imaging by the Underwater Vision Profiler 5
Ariadna C. Nocera, Lars Stemmann, Marcel Babin, Tristan Biard, Julie Coustenoble, François Carlotti, Laurent Coppola, Lucas Courchet, Laetitia Drago, Amanda Elineau, Lionel Guidi, Helena Hauss, Laëtitia Jalabert, Lee Karp-Boss, Rainer Kiko, Manon Laget, Fabien Lombard, Andrew McDonnell, Camille Merland, Solène Motreuil, Thelma Panaïotis, Marc Picheral, Andreas Rogge, Anya Waite, and Jean-Olivier Irisson
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 7345–7366, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-7345-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-7345-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement

Recent papers

10 Nov 2026
Global Carbon Budget 2026
Pierre Friedlingstein, Michael O'Sullivan, Robbie M. Andrew, Judith Hauck, Matthew W. Jones, Peter Landschützer, Corinne Le Quéré, Hongmei Li, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Are Olsen, Glen P. Peters, Wouter Peters, Julia Pongratz, Clemens Schwingshackl, Stephen Sitch, Josep G. Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Kjetil Aas, Simone R. Alin, Vivek Arora, Nicholas R. Bates, Kimberly Bedard, David Martin Belda, Nicolas Bellouin, Alice Benoit-Cattin, Carla F. Berghoff, Sarah Berthet, Laurent Bopp, Ida Bagus Mandhara Brasika, Eleanor Burke, Leon Casse, Matthew A. Chamberlain, Frédéric Chevallier, Louise P. Chini, Margot Cronin, Susan E. Curless, Tim DeVries, Tobias Ehmen, Matthew P. Enright, Kazutaka Enyo, Michael Erb, Wiley Evans, Amanda R. Fay, Ben Felzer, Daniel J. Ford, Adrianna Foster, Filippa Fransner, Agneta Fransson, Andrew Friedman, Thomas Gasser, Marion Gehlen, Thanos Gkritzalis, Giacomo Grassi, Luke Gregor, Nicolas Gruber, Özgür Gürses, Wensu Hao, Kirsty Harrington, Jens Heinke, George C. Hurtt, Tatiana Ilyina, Akihiko Ito, Andrew R. Jacobson, Atul K. Jain, Rajesh Janardanan, Tereza Jarníková, Annika Jersild, Fei Jiang, Zhe Jin, Linus Kamb, Etsushi Kato, Ralph F. Keeling, Kees Klein Goldewijk, Jürgen Knauer, Jan Ivar Korsbakken, Taro Kunimitsu, Xin Lan, Vladimir Lapin, Siv K. Lauvset, Simone Le Chevère, Woo-Sung Lee, Enhui Liao, Junjie Liu, Zhu Liu, Sebastiaan Luyssaert, Lei Ma, Suman Maity, Gregg Marland, Patrick C. McGuire, Nicolas Metzl, Juliette Mignot, Natalie M. Monacci, Eric J. Morgan, Jens D. Müller, David R. Munro, Miaki Muramatsu, Shin-Ichiro Nakaoka, Craig Neill, Tobias Nützel, Léa Olivier, Timothy Osborn, Xosé A. Padín, Paul I. Palmer, Sudhanshu Pandey, Denis Pierrot, Ben Poulter, Zhangcai Qin, Yumou Qiu, Gregor Rehder, Laure Resplandy, Christian Rödenbeck, Alizée Roobaert, Thais M. Rosan, Simone Rossi, Jörg Schwinger, Gereon Seeberg, Roland Séférian, Elisabeth H. Shadwick, Ingunn Skjelvan, Karolina Slominska-Durdasiak, T. Luke Smallman, Mohanan G Sreeush, Qing Sun, Adrienne J. Sutton, Colm Sweeney, Shintaro Takao, Hiroaki Tatebe, Jens Terhaar, Hanqin Tian, Bronte Tilbrook, Takahiro Toyoda, Joaquin A. Triñanes, Francesco Tubiello, Guido R. van der Werf, Auke van der Woude, Sebastiaan J. van de Velde, Anthony P. Walker, Rik Wanninkhof, Xiaojuan Yang, Wenping Yuan, Xu Yue, Jiye Zeng, Ning Zheng, and Bo Zheng
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-895,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-895, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: upcoming, 0 comments)
Short summary
09 Nov 2026
Climatology of the sea temperature from long-term in situ observations: Northern Chilean Patagonia
Cécile Pujol, Alexander Barth, Iván Pérez-Santos, Pamela Linford, and Aida Alvera-Azcárate
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 8167–8189, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-8167-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-8167-2026, 2026
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09 Nov 2026
UKCEH Countryside Survey state and change soil data for Great Britain, 1978–2023
Laura Bentley, Claire M. Wood, Christopher Feeney, Sabine Reinsch, Angus Garbutt, Susan Tandy, Inma Lebron, Amy Thomas, Maud van Soest, Victor Ebuele, James Lucas, M. Gloria Pereira, Patrick Keenan, Joe D. Taylor, Briony Jones, Lindsay Maskell, Peter Henrys, Simon Smart, Bronwen Williams, Aidan M. Keith, Fiona Seaton, Lisa Norton, Bridget A. Emmett, and David A. Robinson
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-459,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-459, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
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09 Nov 2026
A national-wide dataset of plot-level living tree biomass and carbon stocks in Chilean native forests
Karen Sandoval-Salazar, Alejandro Miranda, Jorge Hoyos-Santillan, Rocío Urrutia-Jalabert, Timo Tokola, Carlos Hormazábal, Francoise Pincheira, Cristian Pérez, and Blas Mola-Yudego
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-720,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-720, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
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09 Nov 2026
Annual global terrestrial ecosystem maps from 1982 to 2024 aligned with the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology
Zhenrong Du, Le Yu, Xiyu Li, Hui Wu, Ruyue Chang, Alice C. Hughes, David Coomes, James G. C. Ball, Xiaorui Ma, Hongyu Wang, Huawei Wan, Jixi Gao, and Keping Ma
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-791,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-791, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
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