Earth science data is increasing in complexity. We have released a free visualization ecosystem called Layerscape that facilitates the visualization of complex (3D, 4D, 5+D) datasets with three objectives: First, make it simple to import data into the rendering engine. Second, allow the scientist to explore the data through free perspective, time playback, large dataset (500,000 data point) support, and a high-resolution earth model. Third, enable data-driven storytelling and collaboration through a powerful authoring platform and a community-based website, http://layerscape.org. We present these elements as a unified ecosystem, i.e. a set of research tools that work together, with the idea of addressing new challenges in data-driven environmental science.