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

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

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
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

Recent papers

03 Jul 2026
Mapping global onshore wind turbines using multi-source remote sensing images and hybrid learning approaches
Shujun Li, Jianchuan Qi, Yongze Song, and Peng Wang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 4523–4536, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4523-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4523-2026, 2026
Short summary
03 Jul 2026
| Highlight paper
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
03 Jul 2026
SYSU TWSA v1.0: global high-resolution terrestrial water storage anomalies via satellite gravimetry
Yuhao Xiong, Wei Feng, Jun Huang, Hongbing Bai, Guangyu Jian, and Min Zhong
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 4537–4561, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4537-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4537-2026, 2026
Short summary
02 Jul 2026
A consolidated database of mercury observations for permafrost regions
Christine L. Olson, Kevin Schaefer, Alyssa Azaroff, Hélène Angot, Sasiri Bandara, Thomas A. Douglas, Bo Elberling, Maria Florencia Fahnestock, Xinbin Feng, Charlotte Haugk, Gustaf Hugelius, Erfan Jahangir, Sofi Jonsson, Shichang Kang, Adam Kirkwood, Jennifer Korosi, Igor Lehnherr, Artem Lim, Rinat Manasypov, Dmitriy Moskovchenko, Mina Nasr, Daniel Obrist, David Olefeldt, Connor Olson, Oleg Pokrovsky, Laura Sereni, Sarah Shakil, M. Isabel Smith, Jens Søndergaard, Jeroen Sonke, Kasia Staniszewska, Jens Strauss, Kyra St. Pierre, Lauren Thompson, Andrey Yurtaev, Yanxu Zhang, and Scott Zolkos
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 4509–4522, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4509-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4509-2026, 2026
Short summary
02 Jul 2026
Paleozoic–Mesozoic terrestrial total organic carbon and organic carbon isotope database
Yaokai Tian, Daoliang Chu, Jiankang Lai, Xiang Shu, Cidong Zhang, Fangyu Cui, Liangyu Lou, Xiaokang Liu, Yuyang Wu, Qingzhong Liang, Xinchuan Li, Hong Yao, and Haijun Song
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 4475–4487, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4475-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4475-2026, 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.