ESSD cover
Chief editors: Kirsten Elger, Sibylle K. Hassler, Conrad Jackisch, Ken Mankoff, Graciela Raga, François G. Schmitt, Hanqin Tian & 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

03 Dec 2025 New MS Word template available for manuscript preparation

The existing MS Word template for authors has been significantly expanded and now includes many important notes on the standard sections that must be included in the manuscript. Please visit the "Submission" page, section "Templates for your manuscript file" and download the new template before writing your next manuscript.

03 Dec 2025 New MS Word template available for manuscript preparation

The existing MS Word template for authors has been significantly expanded and now includes many important notes on the standard sections that must be included in the manuscript. Please visit the "Submission" page, section "Templates for your manuscript file" and download the new template before writing your next manuscript.

21 Aug 2025 The JapanFlux2024 dataset for eddy covariance observations covering Japan and East Asia from 1990 to 2023

The JapanFlux2024 dataset, created through collaboration across Japan and East Asia, includes eddy covariance data from 83 sites spanning 683 site-years (1990–2023). Please read more.

21 Aug 2025 The JapanFlux2024 dataset for eddy covariance observations covering Japan and East Asia from 1990 to 2023

The JapanFlux2024 dataset, created through collaboration across Japan and East Asia, includes eddy covariance data from 83 sites spanning 683 site-years (1990–2023). Please read more.

19 Jun 2025 Indicators of Global Climate Change 2024: 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.

19 Jun 2025 Indicators of Global Climate Change 2024: 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.

Recent papers

09 Jan 2026
The Global Spectra-Trait Initiative: A database of paired leaf spectroscopy and functional traits associated with leaf photosynthetic capacity
Julien Lamour, Shawn P. Serbin, Alistair Rogers, Kelvin T. Acebron, Elizabeth Ainsworth, Loren P. Albert, Michael Alonzo, Jeremiah Anderson, Owen K. Atkin, Nicolas Barbier, Mallory L. Barnes, Carl J. Bernacchi, Ninon Besson, Angela C. Burnett, Joshua S. Caplan, Jérôme Chave, Alexander W. Cheesman, Ilona Clocher, Onoriode Coast, Sabrina Coste, Holly Croft, Boya Cui, Clément Dauvissat, Kenneth J. Davidson, Christopher Doughty, Kim S. Ely, John R. Evans, Jean-Baptiste Féret, Iolanda Filella, Claire Fortunel, Peng Fu, Robert T. Furbank, Maquelle Garcia, Bruno O. Gimenez, Kaiyu Guan, Zhengfei Guo, David Heckmann, Patrick Heuret, Marney Isaac, Shan Kothari, Etsushi Kumagai, Thu Ya Kyaw, Liangyun Liu, Lingli Liu, Shuwen Liu, Joan Llusià, Troy Magney, Isabelle Maréchaux, Adam R. Martin, Katherine Meacham-Hensold, Christopher M. Montes, Romà Ogaya, Joy Ojo, Regison Oliveira, Alain Paquette, Josep Peñuelas, Antonia Debora Placido, Juan M. Posada, Xiaojin Qian, Heidi J. Renninger, Milagros Rodriguez-Caton, Andrés Rojas-González, Urte Schlüter, Giacomo Sellan, Courtney M. Siegert, Viridiana Silva-Perez, Guangqin Song, Charles D. Southwick, Daisy C. Souza, Clément Stahl, Yanjun Su, Leeladarshini Sujeeun, To-Chia Ting, Vicente Vasquez, Amrutha Vijayakumar, Marcelo Vilas-Boas, Diane R. Wang, Sheng Wang, Han Wang, Jing Wang, Xin Wang, Andreas P. M. Weber, Christopher Y. S. Wong, Jin Wu, Fengqi Wu, Shengbiao Wu, Zhengbing Yan, Dedi Yang, and Yingyi Zhao
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 245–265, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-245-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-245-2026, 2026
Short summary
09 Jan 2026
Improved land mask for satellite remote sensing of oceans and inland waters
Karlis Mikelsons and Menghua Wang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 231–244, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-231-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-231-2026, 2026
Short summary
09 Jan 2026
A Global Eddy Splitting and Merging Trajectory Dataset Based on Satellite Altimetry Utilizing Eddygroup, Eddytree and Eddygraph
Fenglin Tian, Xiangwen Kong, Yingying Zhao, and Ge Chen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-683,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-683, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: upcoming, 0 comments)
Short summary
08 Jan 2026
Austrian NIR soil spectral library for soil health assessments
Julia Fohrafellner, Maximilian Lippl, Armin Bajraktarevic, Andreas Baumgarten, Heide Spiegel, Robert Körner, and Taru Sandén
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 219–229, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-219-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-219-2026, 2026
Short summary
08 Jan 2026
A global map of forest age for natural and planted forests at a fine spatial resolution of 30 meters
Yan Wang, Hengbin Wang, Chaoran Liang, Xiyi Li, Zhe Liu, Xiaodong Zhang, Shaoming Li, and Yuanyuan Zhao
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-674,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-674, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary

Notice on the current situation in Ukraine

To show our support for Ukraine, all fees for papers from authors (first or corresponding authors) affiliated to Ukrainian institutions are automatically waived, regardless if these papers are co-authored by scientists affiliated to Russian and/or Belarusian institutions. The only exception will be if the corresponding author or first contact (contractual partner of Copernicus) are from a Russian and/or Belarusian institution, in that case the APCs are not waived.

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.