Chief editors: Ira Didenkulova, Axel Kleidon & Gabriele Messori
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.
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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
19 Jun 2026
Chaotic fluctuations in Greenland ice streams limit predictability of ice sheet collapse
Kolja Kypke, Marisa Montoya, Alexander Robinson, Jorge Alvarez-Solas, Jan Swierczek-Jereczek, and Peter Ditlevsen
Earth Syst. Dynam., 17, 769–794, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-769-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-769-2026, 2026
Short summary
12 Jun 2026
Atmospheric river trajectories organise along a global transport network
Tobias Braun, Sara M. Vallejo-Bernal, Norbert Marwan, Juergen Kurths, Johannes Quaas, Albert Díaz-Guilera, Luis Gimeno, and Miguel D. Mahecha
Earth Syst. Dynam., 17, 695–716, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-695-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-695-2026, 2026
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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
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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
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More highlight articles 
All EGU highlight articles
20 Jul 2026
Unresolved: Deciphering the Biosphere’s Role in the Earth System
Wolfgang Lucht, Katherine Richardson, Jørgen Bendtsen, Boris Sakschewski, and Johan Rockström
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3870,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3870, 2026
Preprint under review for ESD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
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News
23 Jun 2026
ESD Editors of the Year 2025
ESD is pleased to announce the recipients of the ESD Editor of the Year 2025 distinction. Please read more.
23 Jun 2026
ESD Editors of the Year 2025
ESD is pleased to announce the recipients of the ESD Editor of the Year 2025 distinction. Please read more.
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.
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.
