ESSD cover
Chief editors: Kirsten Elger, 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.

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.

13 Feb 2026 University of Western Ontario partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications has signed a new agreement with Western Libraries at the University of Western Ontario, providing a 50% APC reduction for eligible corresponding authors submitting from 1 January 2026. Please read more.

13 Feb 2026 University of Western Ontario partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications has signed a new agreement with Western Libraries at the University of Western Ontario, providing a 50% APC reduction for eligible corresponding authors submitting from 1 January 2026. Please read more.

Highlight articles

22 May 2026
Machine-learning-based estimates of global natural vegetated wetland methane emissions (2000–2025)
Mengze Li, Robert B. Jackson, Marielle Saunois, Philippe Ciais, Ben Poulter, Josep G. Canadell, Prabir K. Patra, Hanqin Tian, Zhen Zhang, Etienne Fluet-Chouinard, Zutao Ouyang, Ting Zhang, David J. Beerling, Dmitry A. Belikov, Philippe Bousquet, Danilo Custodio, Naveen Chandra, Xinyu Dou, Nicola Gedney, Peter O. Hopcroft, Alison M. Hoyt, Kazuhito Ichii, Akihito Ito, Atul K. Jain, Katherine Jensen, Fortunat Joos, Thomas Kleinen, Masayuki Kondo, Fa Li, Tingting Li, Xiangyu Liu, Shamil Maksyutov, Avni Malhotra, Adrien Martinez, Kyle McDonald, Joe R. Melton, Jurek Müller, Yosuke Niwa, Shufen Pan, Shushi Peng, Changhui Peng, Zhangcai Qin, Peter Raymond, William Riley, Arjo Segers, Rona L. Thompson, Aki Tsuruta, Yi Xi, Kunxiaojia Yuan, Wenxin Zhang, Bo Zheng, Qing Zhu, Qiuan Zhu, and Qianlai Zhuang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 3507–3524, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3507-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3507-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
29 Apr 2026
Creation and analysis of a multi-hazard dataset: Tenerife (Canary Islands) as a case study
Marta López-Saavedra, Joan Martí, and Marc Martínez-Sepúlveda
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 2979–2998, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-2979-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-2979-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement

Recent papers

22 May 2026
Thermo-hydrological river valley observatory in Yedoma permafrost from 2012 through 2022 in Syrdakh, Central Yakutia
Eric Pohl, Christophe Grenier, Antoine Séjourné, Frédéric Bouchard, Emmanuel Léger, Albane Saintenoy, Pavel Konstantinov, Amélie Cuynet, Catherine Ottlé, Christine Hatté, Aurélie Noret, Kensheri Danilov, Kirill Bazhin, Ivan Khristoforov, Daniel Fortier, Alexander Fedorov, and Emmanuel Mouche
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 3525–3557, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3525-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3525-2026, 2026
Short summary
22 May 2026
GRACE and GRACE-FO mascons for ocean dynamic applications
Jennifer Bonin, Nadège Pie, Mark E. Tamisiea, Don Chambers, and Himanshu Save
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 3481–3505, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3481-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3481-2026, 2026
Short summary
22 May 2026
| Highlight paper
Machine-learning-based estimates of global natural vegetated wetland methane emissions (2000–2025)
Mengze Li, Robert B. Jackson, Marielle Saunois, Philippe Ciais, Ben Poulter, Josep G. Canadell, Prabir K. Patra, Hanqin Tian, Zhen Zhang, Etienne Fluet-Chouinard, Zutao Ouyang, Ting Zhang, David J. Beerling, Dmitry A. Belikov, Philippe Bousquet, Danilo Custodio, Naveen Chandra, Xinyu Dou, Nicola Gedney, Peter O. Hopcroft, Alison M. Hoyt, Kazuhito Ichii, Akihito Ito, Atul K. Jain, Katherine Jensen, Fortunat Joos, Thomas Kleinen, Masayuki Kondo, Fa Li, Tingting Li, Xiangyu Liu, Shamil Maksyutov, Avni Malhotra, Adrien Martinez, Kyle McDonald, Joe R. Melton, Jurek Müller, Yosuke Niwa, Shufen Pan, Shushi Peng, Changhui Peng, Zhangcai Qin, Peter Raymond, William Riley, Arjo Segers, Rona L. Thompson, Aki Tsuruta, Yi Xi, Kunxiaojia Yuan, Wenxin Zhang, Bo Zheng, Qing Zhu, Qiuan Zhu, and Qianlai Zhuang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 3507–3524, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3507-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3507-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
22 May 2026
The global forest diameter spectrum using a machine learning approach
Ankita Mitra, Nancy Harris, Javier G. P. Gamarra, Meredith L. Bastian, Thomas W. Crowther, Nicolas Picard, Martin Herold, Cang Hui, Sergio de-Miguel, W. Gabe Powell, Nathan R. Beane, John R. Shallock, Fons van der Plas, Michael J. Lawes, Mo Zhou, Mohammad Jahanshahi, Nadezhda M. Tchebakova, Elena I. Parfenova, Peter Reich, Cesar Ivan Alvarez, Daniel M. Griffith, Oliver L. Phillips, Ariane Mirabel, Marieke Sandker, WookJin Choi, Akane O. Abbasi, Giorgio Alberti, Jan Altman, Luciana F. Alves, Bienvenu H. K. Amani, Christian Amani, Christian Ammer, Valerio Avitabile, Gerardo A. Aymard C., Akomian F. Azihou, Timothy R. Baker, Radomir Balazy, Jorcely G. Barroso, Jean-François Bastin, Marijn Bauters, Mahmoud Bayat, Hans Beeckman, Eduardo van den Berg, Jahangeer A. Bhat, Anupam Bhatt, Angoboy Ilondea Bhely, Luca Birigazzi, Philippe Birnbaum, Robert Bitariho, Pascal Boeckx, Jan Bogaert, Alexander Bondarev, Frans Bongers, Elise Bouchard, Nils Bourland, Pedro H. S. Brancalion, Francis Q. Brearley, Jennifer L. Bufford, José Javier Corral-Rivas, Jaime Briseno-Reyes, Eben North Broadbent, David F. R. P. Burslem, Plinio Barbosa de Camargo, Goran D. Češljar, Ravi K. Chaturvedi, Han Y. H. Chen, Jiaxin Chen, Francesco Chianucci, George Chuyong, Emil Cienciala, Zorayda Restrepo Correa, Antonio Lola da Costa, Anibal Cuchietti, Javid Ahmad Dar, Selvadurai Dayanandan, Mathieu Decuyper, Tran Van Do, Jiri Dolezal, Ilija Đorđević, Donald R. Drake, Giselda Durigan, Guy-Michel A. Elogne, Tsutomu Enoki, Javier Silva Espejo, Tom Maurice Fayle, Rinaldo Luiz Caraciolo Ferreira, Paul F. Foster, Lorenzo Frizzera, Orou G. Gaoue, Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, Damiano Gianelle, Mario Guevara, Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez, Richard Habonayo, David J. Harris, Billy C. H. Hau, Bruno Hérault, Wannes Hubau, Nobuo Imai, Andrzej M. Jagodzinski, Štěpán Janeček, Patrick A. Jansen, Bogdan Jaroszewicz, Vivian Kvist Johannsen, Carlos A. Joly, Daniel J. Johnson, Tommaso Jucker, Ben Hur Marimon Junior, Raimundo Cosme de Oliveira Junior, Goytom A. Kahsay, Victor Karminov, Elizabeth Kearsley, Deborah K. Kennard, Sebastian Kepfer-Rojas, Gunnar Keppel, Mohammed Latif Khan, John N. Kigomo, Hyun Seok Kim, Sukyung Kim, Carine Klauberg, Henn Korjus, Subashree Kothandaraman, Florian Kraxner, Leonid Krivobokov, Amit Kumar, Gajendra Kumar, Anna E. Kvashnina, Diana Laarmann, Felix Laurent, Gaia Vaglio Laurin, Rodrigo Vieira Leite, Bas Lerink, Simon L. Lewis, Moses B. Libalah, Weiguo Liu, Jon Lovett, Huicui Lu, Maria de los Angeles Soriano-Luna, Anne Mette Lykke, Emma Jane Mackintosh, Jean-Remy Makana, Andrew R. Marshall, Emanuel H. Martin, Radim Matula, Musingo Mbuvi, Sandra Liliana Medina, Vincent P. Medjibe, Desmond Mensah, Sylvanus Mensah, Thiago Metzker, Stanisław Miścicki, Liudmila Mukhortova, Sharif A. Mukul, Agustinus Murdjoko, Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Anny Estelle N'Guessan, Michael R. Ngugi, Alain Senghor K. Ngute, Thomas Nord-Larsen, Thomas O. Ochuodho, Friday N. Ogana, Luzmila Arroyo Padilla, Nazir A. Pala, Alain Paquette, Pablo L. Peri, Sebastian Pfautsch, Maria Teresa F. Piedade, Daniel Piotto, John James Pipoly III, Nigel C. A. Pitman, John R. Poulsen, Akhilesh Raghubanshi, Dipika Rana, Mirco Rodeghiero, Samir Rolim, Purabi Saikia, Peter Schall, Dmitry Schepaschenko, Jochen Schöngart, Vladimír Šebeň, Giacomo Sellan, Carlos Alberto Silva, Marcos Silveira, Jamuna Singh, Ferry Slik, Jarosław Socha, José Daniel Soto, Alexandre F. Souza, Prashant K. Srivastava, Hans ter Steege, Krzysztof Stereńczak, Somaiah Sundarapandian, Martin Svátek, Jens-Christian Svenning, Xiaolu Tang, Raquel S. Thomas, Antonio Tomao, Liam A. Trethowan, Robert Tropek, Kalidas Upadhyaya, Renato Valencia, Rodolfo Vásquez, Daniel Jose Vega-Nieva, Hans Verbeeck, Helder F. Viana, Alexander Christian Vibrans, Simone A. Vieira, Barbara Vinceti, Jason Vleminckx, Vincent Antoine Vos, Anna S. Vozmishcheva, Foma Vozmitel, Hayden Wagia, Hua-Feng Wang, Eric K. Wasingya, Edward L. Webb, Chemuku Wekesa, Verginia Wortel, Emmanuel Kasongo Yakusu, Zhen Yu, Angelica M. Almeyda Zambrano, Irié Casimir Zo-Bi, and Jingjing Liang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-226,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-226, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
22 May 2026
A global kilometre-scale tropical cyclone inner-core vector wind field dataset from CYGNSS observations
Xinhai Han, Xiaohui Li, Jingsong Yang, Hanyue Ni, Zeyi Niu, and Wei Huang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-364,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-364, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary

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