ESD cover
Chief editors: Ira Didenkulova, Axel Kleidon & Gabriele Messori
eISSN: ESD 2190-4987, ESDD 2190-4995

Earth System Dynamics (ESD) is a not-for-profit international scientific journal dedicated to the publication and public discussion of studies that take an interdisciplinary perspective on the functioning of the Earth system and global change. The overall behaviour of the Earth system is strongly shaped by the interactions among its various component systems, such as the atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere, oceans, pedosphere, and the lithosphere, but also by life and increasingly by human activity. ESD solicits contributions that investigate these various interactions and the underlying mechanisms, ways how these can be conceptualized, modelled, and quantified, predictions of the overall system behaviour to global changes, and the impacts for its habitability, humanity, and the future functioning of the Earth system in the Anthropocene.

Journal metrics

ESD is indexed in the Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, etc. We refrain from displaying the journal metrics prominently on the landing page since citation metrics used in isolation do not describe importance, impact, or quality of a journal. However, these metrics can be found on the journal metrics page.

Highlight articles

08 May 2026
Developing Guidelines for working with Multi-Model Ensembles in CMIP
Anja Katzenberger, Jhayron S. Pérez-Carrasquilla, Keighan Gemmell, Evgenia Galytska, Christine Leclerc, Punya P, Indrani Roy, Arianna Varuolo-Clarke, Milica Tošić, and Nina Črnivec
Earth Syst. Dynam., 17, 495–532, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-495-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-495-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
06 May 2026
Quantification of the influence of anthropogenic and natural factors on the record-high temperatures in 2023 and 2024
Endre Z. Farago, Laura A. McBride, Brian F. Bennett, Austin P. Hope, Timothy P. Canty, and Ross J. Salawitch
Earth Syst. Dynam., 17, 451–474, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-451-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-451-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
05 May 2026
Large-scale atmospheric circulation and its impact on the Baltic Sea region: controls, predictability and consequences
Florian Börgel, Itzel Ruvalcaba Baroni, Leonie Barghorn, Leonard Borchert, Bronwyn Cahill, Cyril Dutheil, Leonie Esters, Małgorzata Falarz, Helena L. Filipsson, Matthias Gröger, Jari Hänninen, Magnus Hieronymus, Erko Jakobson, Mehdi Pasha Karami, Karol Kuliński, Taavi Liblik, H. E. Markus Meier, Gabriele Messori, Lev Naumov, Thomas Neumann, Piia Post, Gregor Rehder, Anna Rutgersson, and Georg Sebastian Voelker
Earth Syst. Dynam., 17, 415–450, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-415-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-415-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
22 Apr 2026
Stratospheric aerosol injection geoengineering has the potential to increase land carbon storage and to protect the Amazon rainforest
Isobel M. Parry, Paul D. L. Ritchie, Olivier Boucher, Peter M. Cox, James M. Haywood, Ulrike Niemeier, Roland Séférian, Simone Tilmes, and Daniele Visioni
Earth Syst. Dynam., 17, 387–414, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-387-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-387-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
26 Feb 2026
Challenges and opportunities for understanding societal impacts of climate extremes
Gabriele Messori, Emily Boyd, Joakim Nivre, and Elena Raffetti
Earth Syst. Dynam., 17, 199–208, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-199-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-199-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement

Recent papers

21 May 2026
Projected elevation-dependent warming in the Alps: contrasting free-atmosphere and surface trends with surface energy balance drivers
Ian Castellanos, Martin Ménégoz, Juliette Blanchet, Julien Beaumet, Hubert Gallée, Eduardo Moreno-Chamarro, Chantal Staquet, and Xavier Fettweis
Earth Syst. Dynam., 17, 581–605, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-581-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-581-2026, 2026
Short summary
20 May 2026
Global and Regional Hydroclimatic Responses to Alternative Global Reforestation Pathways
Marzieh Mortezapour, Kirsten Zickfeld, Vivek K. Arora, and Christine Leclerc
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2620,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2620, 2026
Preprint under review for ESD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
20 May 2026
Does the biosphere lift nutrients against gravity, or redirect solar energy? A thermodynamic reframing of planetary biogeowork
Shigeo Kaneko
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2579,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2579, 2026
Preprint under review for ESD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
19 May 2026
Decomposition of the Zero Emissions Commitment into thermal warming pipeline and carbon buffering components
Benjamin M. Sanderson, Marit Sandstad, Alejandro Romero-Prieto, Stuart Jenkins, Charles Koven, Glen Peters, Roland Séfèrian, Andrew H. MacDougall, Ashwin Seshadri, Victor Brovkin, John Dunne, Abigail L. S. Swann, Torben Koenigk, Rosie A. Fisher, David Hohn, Tatiana Ilyina, Chris D. Jones, Hongmei Li, Peter Lawrence, Spencer Liddicoat, Nadine Mengis, Anastasia Romanou, Lori T. Sentman, Chris Smith, Norman J. Steinert, Jerry Tjiputra, and Tilo Ziehn
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1875,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1875, 2026
Preprint under review for ESD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
13 May 2026
Everyday weather in a warmer world
Rhidian Huw Thomas, Gilbert P. Compo, Steve George, Gabriele C. Hegerl, Andrew Schurer, Theodore G. Shepherd, Laura C. Slivinski, Vikki Thompson, and Ed Hawkins
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2548,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2548, 2026
Preprint under review for ESD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary

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.

06 May 2026 Quantification of the influence of anthropogenic and natural factors on the record-high temperatures in 2023 and 2024

Global mean surface temperature anomalies in 2023 and 2024 were the highest on the modern record. The authors quantify contributions to these anomalies from human activity, including the steep reduction in sulfur emissions from ships that began in 2020, and numerous natural factors. Please read more.

06 May 2026 Quantification of the influence of anthropogenic and natural factors on the record-high temperatures in 2023 and 2024

Global mean surface temperature anomalies in 2023 and 2024 were the highest on the modern record. The authors quantify contributions to these anomalies from human activity, including the steep reduction in sulfur emissions from ships that began in 2020, and numerous natural factors. 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.

Notice on APC invoices

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.