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

11 Nov 2026 State of Wildfires 2025–2026

The third State of Wildfires report examines extreme wildfire events from 2025 to early 2026. It analyses key regional events in Midwestern Canadian Shield Forests, Northwest Iberia, and Chilean Temperate Forests and Matorral, assessing their impacts, drivers, and attributing them to climate change. Please read more.

11 Nov 2026 State of Wildfires 2025–2026

The third State of Wildfires report examines extreme wildfire events from 2025 to early 2026. It analyses key regional events in Midwestern Canadian Shield Forests, Northwest Iberia, and Chilean Temperate Forests and Matorral, assessing their impacts, drivers, and attributing them to climate change. 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.

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.

Highlight articles

11 Nov 2026
State of Wildfires 2025–2026
Chantelle A. Burton, Francesca Di Giuseppe, Matthew W. Jones, Douglas I. Kelley, Maria L. F. Barbosa, Joe McNorton, Bob Potts, Carlota Segura-Garcia, John T. Abatzoglou, Iulian Alin Rosu, Niels Andela, Liana O. Anderson, Sally Archibald, Esther Brambleby, Emilio Chuvieco, Andrew Ciavarella, Hamish Clarke, Francisco de la Barrera, Carlos M. Di Bella, Enza Di Tomaso, Kebonye Dintwe, Tim S. Doherty, Victoria M. Donovan, Jonathan M. Eden, Paulo M. Fernandes, Lukas Fiedler, Louis Giglio, Olivia Haas, Douglas S. Hamilton, Stijn Hantson, Sarah Harris, Andrew J. Hartley, Theo Keeping, Crystal A. Kolden, Jean-Luc Kouassi, Elena Kukavskaya, Seppe Lampe, Zhongwei Liu, Guilherme Mataveli, Sarah Meier, Duarte Oom, Mark Parrington, Yuquan Qu, Victor Resco de Dios, Julien Ruffault, Mojtaba Sadegh, Cristina Santín, Fernando Sedano, Jacquelyn K. Shuman, Patrícia S. Silva, Fiona R. Spuler, Carmen B. Steinmann, Veerachai Tanpipat, Miguel Ángel Torres-Vazquez, Marco Turco, Guido R. van der Werf, Dave van Wees, Sander Veraverbeke, Jakob B. Wessel, and Bo Zheng
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 8037–8105, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-8037-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-8037-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
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

Recent papers

11 Nov 2026
The MAESTRO turbulence dataset derived from the SAFIRE ATR42 aircraft
Louis Jaffeux, Marie Lothon, Fleur Couvreux, Dominique Bouniol, Grégoire Cayez, Lilian Joly, Jérémie Burgalat, Cyrille De Saint Leger, Hubert Bellec, Olivier Henry, Dyaa Chbib, Tetyana Jiang, Vergez Gilles, and Sandrine Bony
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 8229–8253, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-8229-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-8229-2026, 2026
Short summary
11 Nov 2026
A 1 km gridded dataset of Northern Hemisphere permafrost active layer thickness (2000–2024)
Yujiao Wei, Zhaoqi Wu, Jiaxue Wang, Huanfeng Shen, and Yiyun Chen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 8211–8227, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-8211-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-8211-2026, 2026
Short summary
11 Nov 2026
| Highlight paper
State of Wildfires 2025–2026
Chantelle A. Burton, Francesca Di Giuseppe, Matthew W. Jones, Douglas I. Kelley, Maria L. F. Barbosa, Joe McNorton, Bob Potts, Carlota Segura-Garcia, John T. Abatzoglou, Iulian Alin Rosu, Niels Andela, Liana O. Anderson, Sally Archibald, Esther Brambleby, Emilio Chuvieco, Andrew Ciavarella, Hamish Clarke, Francisco de la Barrera, Carlos M. Di Bella, Enza Di Tomaso, Kebonye Dintwe, Tim S. Doherty, Victoria M. Donovan, Jonathan M. Eden, Paulo M. Fernandes, Lukas Fiedler, Louis Giglio, Olivia Haas, Douglas S. Hamilton, Stijn Hantson, Sarah Harris, Andrew J. Hartley, Theo Keeping, Crystal A. Kolden, Jean-Luc Kouassi, Elena Kukavskaya, Seppe Lampe, Zhongwei Liu, Guilherme Mataveli, Sarah Meier, Duarte Oom, Mark Parrington, Yuquan Qu, Victor Resco de Dios, Julien Ruffault, Mojtaba Sadegh, Cristina Santín, Fernando Sedano, Jacquelyn K. Shuman, Patrícia S. Silva, Fiona R. Spuler, Carmen B. Steinmann, Veerachai Tanpipat, Miguel Ángel Torres-Vazquez, Marco Turco, Guido R. van der Werf, Dave van Wees, Sander Veraverbeke, Jakob B. Wessel, and Bo Zheng
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 8037–8105, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-8037-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-8037-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
11 Nov 2026
High-Elevation Meteorological Datasets from the Quelccaya Ice Cap and Surrounding Sites in the Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru: 2012–2026
L. Baker Perry, Arbindra Khadka, Ludving Cano, Anton Seimon, Tom Matthews, Sandro Arias, Heather Guy, Maxwell Rado, Nilton Montoya, Courtney Cooper, and Wilson Suarez
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-839,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-839, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
10 Nov 2026
BMAT: a footprint-level building facade material dataset for 73 major cities worldwide
Hanyu Yin, Fan Zhang, Yuqing Wang, Lun Wu, and Yu Liu
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 8191–8209, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-8191-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-8191-2026, 2026
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