The Earth, space, and environmental sciences community, through a grant from the Belmont Forum, has developed a suite of open science materials to get you and your teams started on your Open Science Journey. The development team includes members from Australia, Brazil, France, Japan, and the United States, coordinated by the AGU. This talk will share the materials and a bit of the background. Included are topics such as your Digital Presence, Data Documentation and Citation, Software Documentation and Citation, materials for working openly as a team, and how to integrate data and software management into your research lifecycle.
How to cite: Stall, S. and Specht, A.: Your Open Science Journey: Earth, space, and environmental science educational materials supporting researchers and their teams., EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20599, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20599, 2025.
Many paper archives of environmental data have yet to be made available digitally. One example is an extensive series of atmospheric electricity observations made at UK sites during the majority of the twentieth century, which contains almost continuous measurements at hourly resolution. Renewed interest in atmospheric electricity due to its relationship to climate variables and local air pollution has made digitising this archive a priority. Due to the number of handwritten individual observations to be transcribed, a citizen science keying project has been implemented on the Zooniverse platform: see https://rdg.ac/electricity . Through press and news articles, over 500 citizen scientists have now been recruited to contribute to this task. We have also evaluated which of these profile-raising activities have been most effective for drawing volunteers to the project. One advantage of having multiple individuals take part is that ambiguous handwritten entries can be recovered effectively and accurately, through combining the judgements of different transcribers. A further key aspect of engagement has been putting our contributors in touch with how the original data looks, and to some extent “feels”, as it provides an entry point for digital era humans into how past environmental data was recorded, in pen and ink. Since citizen science project are undertaken entirely by volunteers, we also discuss the challenges with maintaining engagement with the community of volunteers, which is essential for the successful completion of data transcribing projects to yield the associated scientific advancement.
How to cite: Nicoll, K., Mkrtchyan, H., and Harrison, R. G.: Opening up historical atmospheric electricity data with Citizen Science , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18716, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18716, 2025.
Antarctica poses a unique challenge for data compilation and sharing, due to the sourcing of data from many national programs and a diversity of surveys and data access protocols. Coordinated by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, the Antarctic Digital Magnetic Anomaly Project (ADMAP) has made huge progress to collate coordinate and disseminate the magnetic data of Antarctica. ADMAP’s first iteration was produced in 2001, and the second iteration was released in 2018. The community is looking now towards the next iteration to support ongoing research in Antarctica. We present here a roadmap for this data compilation, with a focus on the ability for researchers to access a live and interactive resource, to add new data when it is available, and for this to be realised in the compilation soon after data submission. For this it is necessary to ease the burden of data processing, to define a consistent approach to the data handling, and to accelerate the timeline from data-submission to incorporation into the compilation. The approach therefore is founded on an automated data-processing workflow that can accommodate the wide variety of data submitted (variable spacings, heights and times of collection), can tolerate incremental updates to the main product within a reasonable compute load, and can achieve results within a reasonable tolerance without requiring manual intervention. This presentation focuses on the intended approach to compilation and the expected outcomes, based on a test-case.
How to cite: Aitken, A., Ebbing, J., Lowe, M., Loesing, M., Szwillus, W., Li, L., and Graeme, E.: Developing AIDMAP: A roadmap to interactive community-based data compilation for magnetic data in Antarctica., EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4635, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4635, 2025.
While the output volumes from high-resolution weather and climate models are increasing exponentially, data storage, access, and analysis methods have not kept up. Data compression is a vital tool to keep up with this increase in data production. As lossless compression is no longer sufficient to produce the required compression ratios, lossy compression should be applied instead. However, information loss sounds scary. While mounting research shows that model and measurement data contains “false information” (e.g. noise or uncertainty from measurements or numerical inaccuracies) that can be removed for better compression without degrading the data quality, a convincing argument for lossy data compression can only be made by domain scientists themselves by trying it out for themselves.
Interactive code notebooks (e.g. Jupyter) have become popular for sharing and communicating computational experiments, analyses, and visualizations. While sharing the notebooks is easy, running them requires hosting a JupyterLab server and installing all Python and system libraries required for the notebook. This initial setup cost hinders quickly experimenting with a shared notebook and testing, e.g. a practical example of lossy data compression for oneself.
As part of the EuroHPC ESiWACE, Phase 3, Centre of Excellence (https://www.esiwace.eu/), we have been developing an Online Laboratory for Climate Science and Meteorology (https://lab.climet.eu), a JupyterLab instance that runs serverless just within your web browser and comes with many libraries pre-installed. With the online lab, which builds on the Pyodide and JupyterLite community projects, running and exploring a shared notebook can start within a minute. We use the online laboratory to provide domain scientists with an online compression laboratory, https://compression.lab.climet.eu, to reduce the barrier to experimenting with the effect of lossy compression on their own data. The lab also supports URL schemas to preload other third-party notebooks (and repositories) hosted via Git, as Gists, or behind any URL, so that sharing a ready-to-run notebook is as easy as sharing, e.g., https://lab.climet.eu/v0.2/github/juntyr/climet-lab-demo/v0.2.0/demo.ipynb. We are also working on quickly turning existing static-documentation example-notebooks into interactive documentation that invites immediate further exploration.
In this session, we want to showcase the online laboratory and the services it can provide to the earth science community by live demonstrating its applications in the compression laboratory and others. We also hope to gather feedback on the future direction of its development and collaborations with other open science tools to serve our communities best.
How to cite: Tyree, J., Faghih-Naini, S., Dueben, P., Peters-von Gehlen, K., and Järvinen, H.: Exploring Lossy Data Compression in an Online Laboratory for Climate Science and Meteorology, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-15003, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15003, 2025.
Recently, Machine Learning (ML) has emerged as a powerful tool within cryospheric sciences, offering innovative and effective solutions for observing, modelling, and understanding Earth's frozen regions. However, the ML and cryosphere communities have traditionally been poles apart, each shaped by distinct research motivations, publishing paradigms, and evaluation criteria. These research silos can lead to common pitfalls of interdisciplinary research, such as "helicopter science", insights getting lost in translation, or the continued use of outdated (ML) methods. To fully harness the compelling opportunities for impactful research at the intersection of these two fields, machine learning practitioners and domain scientists must join forces.
To address this gap between machine learning and cryosphere research, we established ML4Cryo (Machine Learning for the Cryosphere, see https://ml4cryo.github.io/), a global research community that leverages collective expertise across diverse fields such as deep learning, physics-informed ML, remote sensing, and both terrestrial and marine cryospheric domains. Our goal is not only to advance scientific discovery but also to foster application-driven advances in machine learning research. ML4Cryo aims to empower researchers by initiating conversations and collaborations, enabling machine learning specialists to learn about the most pressing challenges within the cryosphere, while cryosphere researchers can learn about the state-of-the-art models developed by the ML community. Contributing to ML4Cryo’s mission, our platform serves as a community-driven hub to share and discover ideas, recent publications, tools, software, datasets, knowledge resources, funding opportunities, best practices, as well as relevant conferences and events. We invite you to join ML4Cryo, where the synergy between machine learning and cryospheric science paves the way for impactful and rewarding research.
How to cite: Bente, K., Kaltenborn, J., and McDonald, A.: Breaking the Ice Between Machine Learning Experts and Cryosphere Scientists - The ML4Cryo Research Community, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-725, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-725, 2025.
Atmospheric aerosols play a crucial role in Earth's atmospheric environment and are among its most variable components. In polar regions, aerosols originate from both natural and anthropogenic sources. In the Arctic, the majority of the aerosol mass consists of oceanic sea-salt, mineral dust, non-sea-salt sulphate, and products of biomass burning (Tomasi et al. 2015). In contrast, anthropogenic aerosols are dominated by black carbon (BC) and nitrate, which are signatures of traffic and industrial emissions (Quinn et al. 2007). Polar aerosols can have significant regional effects by interacting with incoming solar radiation and by altering the albedo of the surface-atmosphere system (IPCC 2023). To address and study these effects, the Polar-AOD project was proposed for the first time in 1999 by Claudio Tomasi from the National Research Council of Italy. This initiative aims to characterize the means, variability, and trends of aerosol properties in polar regions. Its primary goal is to connect observational stations measuring aerosol properties along the atmospheric vertical column. These observations provide critical data to quantify aerosol physical and radiative properties at high latitudes, including seasonal background concentrations derived from aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements, spectral characterizations, and the influence of natural and anthropogenic processes on the radiative balance of the surface and atmosphere. This project fosters collaboration among scientists in the field of photometry at both poles. It also incorporates the stellar and lunar photometry data, which help to address historical gaps in AOD climatologies during the polar night. By filling these gaps, the Polar-AOD project contributes to a comprehensive understanding of aerosol behavior and its impacts on the polar regions. To support this effort, a new web platform has been recently developed to store and share data and metadata from photometric measurements, forming a polar AOD archive. This archive, managed by CNR through GeoNetwork, enables the organization and search of spatially referenced resources while allowing each scientific group to manage its own data, choosing to share metadata only or both data and metadata for specific sites or campaigns within the Polar-AOD network. The new data portal will be presented, along with the maps of the stations and instruments, and the Polar-AOD metadata catalogue.
Bibliography
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2023). Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis: Working Group I Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Quinn, P. K. et al. (2007), Arctic haze: current trends and knowledge gaps, Tellus B, 59(1):99–114. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-0889.2006.00238
Tomasi, C. et al. (2015), Aerosol remote sensing in polar regions. Earth-Science Reviews, 140:108–157, 0012-8252, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2014.11.001
How to cite: Pulimeno, S., Mazzola, M., Lupi, A., Verazzo, G., Cavaliere, A., Frangipani, C., Stone, R., and Vitale, V.: The evolution of the Polar-AOD network: towards a comprehensive repository supporting efforts for integrated polar observing systems, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8347, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8347, 2025.
The Science Explorer (SciX) digital library is a cutting-edge solution designed to address the growing complexity of accessing, evaluating, and synthesizing the expanding body of literature in Earth and environmental sciences. While the Earth System itself remains as intricate as ever, the challenge today lies in navigating an increasingly vast and diverse array of research and data. SciX responds to this need by providing a centralized, open-access platform that enhances the discovery and integration of scientific literature, all while adhering to the FAIR principles—Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.
In this session, we will showcase how SciX empowers researchers to efficiently explore a vast repository of scholarly publications relevant to the Earth and environmental sciences. Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies, SciX optimizes literature search and discovery, enabling users to easily locate, evaluate, and engage with the most pertinent scientific papers and resources. Features like personalized searches, citation exports, and tailored alerts allow researchers to stay at the forefront of their fields.
We will also highlight the powerful bibliometric tools within SciX, including parameterized search and advanced visualization capabilities. These bibliometric visualizations help researchers uncover connections between authors, citations, and emerging research trends, enabling the identification of potential collaborators across disciplines and fostering a broader, more integrated approach to scientific inquiry. By mapping key contributors and intellectual networks, SciX facilitates cross-disciplinary collaboration, enhancing the impact of research across the Earth System.
At the heart of SciX is a commitment to open science and continuous user engagement. The platform evolves based on user-driven feedback, ensuring that it meets the evolving needs of the scientific community. This presentation will demonstrate how SciX is shaping the future of literature review, collaboration, and interdisciplinary research in Earth and environmental sciences.
Attendees will leave with practical insights into how SciX can streamline their literature review process, promote collaboration across scientific disciplines, and help tackle the challenges of today’s rapidly expanding research landscape.
How to cite: Kurtz, M., Myers, B., and Kelbert, A.: Enhancing Geoscience Collaboration and Discovery: Leveraging the Science Explorer (SciX) for Efficient Literature Review and Interdisciplinary Research, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-10379, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-10379, 2025.
Reusable and actionable Earth Observation (EO) Data and Knowledge are crucial for tackling global issues. In recent years, the adoption of Open Science practices in the scientific community has increased the availability of Open EO Data and Open EO Knowledge. This movement created an ecosystem in which existing research outcomes, tools, data, and knowledge are reused as the basis for new research activities and projects.
The Group on Earth Observation (GEO) is a global effort of countries, civil society organizations, and the private sector to empower users to access and use EO Data and Knowledge as the foundation for policymaking toward a more sustainable and resilient world. Over the past years, as one way to support its goal, GEO has been developing the GEO Infrastructure, a comprehensive set of services supporting the Open Data and Open Knowledge activities within the GEO Community. This infrastructure includes the GEOSS Platform, which provides an easy way to access Open EO Data from multiple sources. It also has the GEO Knowledge Hub (GKH), a digital repository empowering user to share and preserve Open EO Knowledge.
The GKH uses the Knowledge Package as its sharing unit, which is an implementation of a Research Compendium that allows users to centralize, preserve, and describe resources used to compose their research. Each resource in a Knowledge Package can have its metadata, files, and Digital Object Identifier (DOI). As the goal of the GKH is to preserve and centralize Open EO Knowledge, creating a Knowledge Package and uploading resources to it is always recommended. However, the resources used to develop research are sometimes spread across multiple platforms. In alignment with the GEO Data Sharing and Data Management Principles, the GKH also handles this case by allowing users to provide as much metadata as possible about resources and links to access it.
Zenodo, the universal repository on which various research projects and other initiatives are based, is a common source for those remote resources. Therefore, we developed this integration in this work to facilitate the composition of Knowledge Packages using resources in Zenodo.
This integration allows users to import a Zenodo record, such as a Dataset, as part of their Knowledge Package. Once imported, the record is visible within the package with its own page, presenting the metadata and files from Zenodo. To avoid duplications and optimize storage usage, GKH only imports metadata from Zenodo. The files are listed in GKH as remote content. Also, the Zenodo metadata in GKH is automatically synchronized when new updates are available in Zenodo.
To test this integration, we partnered with EuroGEO, a European initiative to create a regional GEO community for Europe. We used this integration in various EU-funded projects, creating packages with a mix of content available in GKH and Zenodo.
In this session, we are going to share our path to this integration, lessons learned, and the impact in the GEO community.
How to cite: Carlos, F., Yessimkhanova, K., de Salvo, P., and Menard, L.: Enhancing Open EO Knowledge preservation through the integration of the GEO Knowledge Hub and Zenodo , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18663, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18663, 2025.
In 2022, the European Union (EU) launched the Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, to foster the climate resilience of regions, cities, citizens, and companies in Europe. The EU funded project, Adaptation AGORA, brings together 13 partners from eight EU countries and the UK to support communities and citizens to accelerate their transformation to a climate resilient future. More specifically, Adaptation AGORA has used a transdisciplinary co-creation approach to facilitate the development of a digital toolbox of innovative mechanisms and transdisciplinary approaches for inclusive climate governance that fosters citizen and community engagement, known as the online climate adaptation platform, the Agora Community Hub, as well as two digital academies focussing on accessing and using climate data and monitoring climate risks, and climate change disinformation.
However, the proliferation of portals and platforms sharing information online is expanding daily. This does not always result in a coordinated or systematic effort, which means knowledge is often fragmented and siloed leading to redundancy and/or replication. In an era when planning must accelerate to implementation and concerted climate action, we need faster ways to learn lessons from one another on knowledge sharing and exchange. To support knowledge sharing and exchange between climate adaptation platforms, the Adaptation AGORA project has started this webinar series to engage climate adaptation platforms, encourage collaboration between platforms, and increase learning. The webinar series has focused on: EU funded projects and climate adaptation platforms; connecting knowledge to policy and practice; and has an upcoming webinar on monitoring the impact of climate adaptation platforms.
This EGU session would be interactive, highlighting the AGORA project as well as other climate adaptation platforms available, and then engaging with the audience to discuss enablers and barriers of and how to build alliances with other climate adaptation platforms. The session aims to:
- Highlight the AGORA project and its related platforms, focusing on how other climate adaptation platforms can interact with the Agora Community Hub.
- Share and exchange information on enablers and barriers to exchanging with climate adaptation platforms.
- Explore potential synergies, opportunities and foster collaboration between climate adaptation platforms.
- Engage and foster a dialogue between climate adaptation platforms in line with the AGORA project webinar series.
Anticipated outcomes include the identification and exploration of available climate adaptation platforms, identification of enablers and barriers to engaging with climate adaptation platforms to limit silos, and discussions around future synergies and collaborations between climate adaptation platforms. A summary and findings will be disseminated through an online feature.
How to cite: Witton, R. and Bharwani, S.: How can climate adaptation platforms engage and learn from each other?, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19248, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19248, 2025.
An ongoing challenge relevant to most research disciplines is the difficulty in citing 100+ digital objects such as datasets, software, samples, and images. Journals require authors to place citations over some set limit into supplemental information, where individual citations are not properly indexed, not linked to the manuscript, nor tracked accurately. Citing these research products is critical to enable transparent and reproducible research and for researchers, institutions, and project managers to trace citation, get appropriate credit, and report impact to funders.
Open Science practices encourage providing proper attribution for the digital objects that support research findings and outcomes. Journals commonly redirect authors with many digital object citations to move those to the supplemental information where they are not indexed. This means:
- Creators of these digital objects do not get attribution and credit for their contribution to the scholarly literature
- Funders cannot measure use, impact and derived value from these digital objects
- Machine-actionable transparency is not possible. And over time, the supplement has a high probability of not being maintained by the publisher.
We need to develop a scalable citation implementation strategy to enable open transparent and traceable research, which allows integration into common citation/impact metrics
The findings of the Research Data Alliance (RDA) Complex Citations Working Group have produced key requirements (R1 - R10) for Complex Citation Objects (CCOs) to achieve our goals. In summary:
- CCOs capture enough detail to ensure proper credit, traceability, and transparency of cited materials (R1), supporting machine-actionable attribution for each referenced object (R2).
- CCOs do not accrue credit themselves but simply list data and digital identifiers that require citation tracking (R3).
- CCOs are stable, identifiable, versioned, resolvable, and persistent (R4, R5).
- CCOs use standardized structures, limited to two PID graph levels, with a strong preference to utilize persistent identifiers (R6, R6.1, R7).
- CCOs remain open, accessible, and flexible for various use cases, with an open license, and sufficient metadata (R8-R10).
The full recommendations were published ahead of a presentation at the last RDA plenary session (Agarwal et al. 2024). The recommendations were based on use cases that identified the roles and responsibilities of the Complex Citation Workflow Actors necessary for the Complex Citation Objects (CCOs) to be used in practice.
The Complex Citations Working Group is moving to a new phase where the recommendations need to be tested, evaluated and proven. To this end we are keen to inspire collaboration through new use cases, pilot implementations, to include repositories, journals, indexers and researchers to develop a new project and entrain more communities to take this work forward.
Reference:
Agarwal, D., Ayliffe, J., J. H. Buck, J., Damerow, J., Parton, G., Stall, S., Stockhause, M., & Wyborn, L. (2024). Complex Citation Working Group Recommendation (Version 1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14106603
How to cite: Ayliffe, J., Agarwal, D., Buck, J., Damerow, J., Parton, G., Stall, S., Stockhause, M., and Wyborn, L.: Transparency in open science outputs -: Ensuring Transparency, Reproducibility, and Credit for All Supporting Research Contributions, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19351, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19351, 2025.
Databases are playing an increasingly pivotal role in the field of Earth Sciences. We present a comprehensive database of igneous rocks from the Newfoundland Appalachians (https://dde.igeodata.org/subject/detail.html?id=67). The database consists of a set of 15,110 high-quality data. Each dataset includes detailed information on geographic location (latitudes and longitudes), geological background, petrology, geochronology, major and trace elements, isotopes, and references. The data were collected from published papers, publicly available databases, geological survey reports, and academic dissertations. The database offers several advantages: (1) A systematic and complementary data model aligned with the knowledge systems of igneous rock. (2) A broad range of high-quality data collected over 50 years, and derived from diverse sources; (3) A platform for efficient searchability and usability. This database will help achieve a wide range of scientific research objectives related to igneous rocks in the Newfoundland Appalachians and the tectonic evolution of the Newfoundland island.
How to cite: Wang, C., Wang, T., and Ding, Y.: A database for igneous rocks of the Newfoundland Appalachians, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20355, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20355, 2025.
Lakes are responding rapidly to climate change and in coming decades global warming is project to have more persistent and stronger effects on hydrology, nutrient cycling, and biodiversity. Factors driving lake condition vary widely across space and time, and lakes, in turn, play an important role in local and global climate regulation, with positive and negative feedback depending on the catchment. Understanding the complex behaviour of lakes in a changing environment is essential to effective water resource management and mitigation of climate change effects.
To support the comprehension of this topic at a global scale, satellite technologies provide a unique source of data. Remote sensing can indeed enable long-term monitoring of freshwaters, supporting water managers' decisions providing data, and filling knowledge gaps to a better understanding of the regional and local areas most affected and threatened by health status degradation. With this aim, space agencies and the remote sensing community have joined the efforts to provide global, stable, consistent, and long-term products openly available and easily accessible to different kinds of users.
In this contribution, we present the latest release of the dataset from the Lakes_cci project (funded by the European Space Agency), which provides the most complete collection of the Essential Climate Variable LAKES consisting of six thematic products (lake water extent and level, lake ice cover and thickness, lake surface water temperature, lake water-leaving reflectance). The dataset spans the time range 1992 to 2022 and includes over 2000 relatively large lakes, which represent a small fraction of the number of lakes worldwide but a significant portion of the global freshwater surface. An overview of the current version (V2.1) of the dataset and the improvements in quality and usability of the next version (V3) of the dataset will be presented, together with a set of tools and a dashboard for visualisation and download of the data.
With this contribution, we aim to discuss how this kind of product can be useful to the several research communities involved, their limits, potential improvements and chances to further joint research also respect to the research community's expectations and needs.
How to cite: Amadori, M., Pinardi, M., Giardino, C., Bresciani, M., Caroni, R., Greife, A. J., Simis, S., Crétaux, J.-F., Carrea, L., Yesou, H., Duguay, C., Albergel, C., and Andral, A.: A global dataset for lake physical variables from satellite measurements, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4377, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4377, 2025.
A new geospatial database started to realize since 2021 including parametric and descriptive information about the active faults in the broader Aegean region (Eastern Mediterranean). The Hellenic DataBase of Active Faults (HeDBAF) is a national ongoing product developed under the auspices of the EPPO (Earthquake Planning & Protection Organisation) and the supervision of its Seismotectonics Committee. The responsibility of implementation, management and hosting is held by the Hellenic Survey of Geology & Mineral Exploration (HSGME).
Active fault databases for broader Greece already existed since about 2010. Besides the fact that these databases were materialized by small groups of researchers, their objectives were also rather narrow, offering data and information for particular purposes. The HeDBAF adopts conceptual approaches and characteristics from other time-proven national databases of the world (e.g. INGV’s DISS, IGME’s QAFI, etc.). It is a multi-layered tool that hosts all available literature data (e.g. scientific articles, technical/project reports, thematic maps, etc.), targeting various groups of end-users: the primary target group is the scientific community which often needs medium- to small-scale information for geodynamic interpretations, large-scale data for local seismotectonic analyses, and appropriate parametric information for numerical modelling. The next target group is the engineers who need large-scale detailed surveying of the fault traces and ground ruptures, and fault models for the prediction of ground motion in the context of Seismic Hazard Assessment. Administration, government, security bodies and local authorities can benefit from this geodatabase as a decision-making tool for safety and rescue planning. Last, but not least, a broad range of citizens will be able to access principal theoretical and parametric information about active faults in areas they are interested in.
Until today, two main fault datasets have started to develop: i) the Fault Traces, and ii) the Fault Zones datasets. The former focuses on the mapping accuracy of faults, targeting on large- to medium-scale data (> 1:50,000). Faults originating from smaller scale maps are reassessed (if possible) using hi-resolution topographic data. Primary co-seismic ground ruptures are distinguished from geologically detected fault traces to better understand the surficial rupturing process for fault rupture hazard purposes. The Fault Zones dataset involves fault segmentation and earthquake rupture scenarios which are crucial for Seismic Hazard Assessment (SHA). Thus, the fault zones are represented by medium- to small-scale lineaments which also facilitate the visualization of large tectonic structures in small-scale maps. The HeDBAF, as a very young effort still misses both fault occurrences and associated information. However, the geodatabase is continuously updateable and upgradeable showing frequent improvements and enrichments.
How to cite: Galanakis, D., Sboras, S., Sakellariou, D., Pavlides, S., Iordanidou, K., Georgiou, C., Ganas, A., Koukouvelas, I., Kranis, C., Lalechos, S., Rondoyanni, T., and Lekkas, E. and the EPPO Seismotectonics Committee: The Hellenic DataBase of Active Faults (HeDBAF): a new, national geodatabase of active faults for the broader Greek territory, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9230, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9230, 2025.
TERN (Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network) is Australia’s field-based ecological observatory; national research infrastructure for collecting, recording and sharing data and samples using highly instrumented monitoring sites, field surveys and remote-sensing techniques such as drones and satellites. TERN’s freely available long term monitoring data and samples are used by researchers, government decision makers and industry in Australia and internationally.
The TERN Australia Soil and Vegetation Collection is a purpose-built treasure trove for scientists, bringing together more than 150,000 soil samples, soil metagenomic samples, plant voucher specimens, plant samples and plant genetic material. Beginning in 2012, the TERN field monitoring program has data and samples from 1000 long-term ecological monitoring sites across the continent. The TERN Collection was recently added to Index Herbariorum, the global network of herbaria.
Unlike most soil and plant collections around the world, each sample in the TERN Collection is associated with comprehensive, highly detailed environmental information about the 100m x 100m survey sites where it was collected. All other specimens sampled at each site are also available, enabling complex research, discovery and understanding such as on relationships between soils, plants, carbon and environmental conditions. Botanists, ecologists, taxonomists and agricultural scientists are frequent users of this collection, and the samples can also be useful to microbiologists for a range of human and environmental health applications. The repository is openly available to interested researchers globally.
This state-of-the-art repository is contributing to important research critical to solving real-world problems, particularly in the areas of climate science, earth observation, conservation, and sustainability.
How to cite: Irvine, K., O'Neill, S., Tokmakoff, A., Lewis, D., and Sparrow, B.: The TERN Australia Soil and Herbarium Collection, a national ecological treasure, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-14319, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-14319, 2025.
Output generated by the different phases of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) has underpinned countless scientific projects and serves as the foundation of the United Nations climate change reports. While initially CMIP was largely driven by the scientific curiosity in the broader climate modeling community, CMIP output has also become a crucial data source for disciplines more tangentially related to physical climate science such as the economic modelling community. The upcoming CMIP phase 7 is expected to produce the largest amount of CMIP-related data to date. However, with an increasing number of modelling systems, represented realms, model complexity, variable names, experiments, and different grid types, the initial exposure to CMIP output has undoubtedly become an overwhelming experience for first-time users. For this presentation, we would like to start a conversation with users who are in or have recent experience of being in the early stages of employing CMIP outputs for their research, and together identify:
- Key barriers and challenges experienced when first using CMIP data
- Additional documentation/tools needed to facilitate the use of CMIP data
- Key pieces of advice for new CMIP users
How to cite: Teckentrup, L., Pope, J. O., Francis, F., Green, J. K., Jenkins, S., Varghese, S. J., Kou-Giesbrecht, S., Leclerc, C., Madan, G., Ng, K., Prasad, A., Roy, I., Schroeter, S., Winkelbauer, S., and Winkler, A. J.: Navigating the Jungle of CMIP Data as a First-Time User: Key Challenges and Future Directions , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19107, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19107, 2025.
Access to geological reference sections can have limitations related to geo-political reasons, travel restrictions during global pandemics, weather conditions or time and funding for travelling, among other limiting factors. In addition, the quality of outcrops and their access often deteriorate due to weathering or vegetation cover, making it difficult and even impossible to use them in scientific research and public outreach. The rapid development of three-dimensional digital models has changed this scenario, deeply contributing to innovative information technologies and scientific research in geoscience.
In order to enhance and give visibility to Paleogene global reference sections such as the Global Stratotype section and point (GSSP) that officially marks the base of standard geological units (stages and ages), as well as globally significant geo-heritage sites, the International Subcommission on Paleogene Stratigraphy (ISPS) has focused on the acquisition and digitization of geological outcrops. The results are publicly available on the ISPS website https://www.paleogene.org/, and will be populated with additional information in the future.
Data acquisition used photogrammetry and Lidar modeling techniques with mobile phones. The models were enhanced to create an immersive virtual experience of the geosites. The utilization of ATON, an open-source framework developed by the Institute of Heritage Science of the Italian National Research Council (CNR ISPC), allows the exploration of large, massive 3D datasets using HMDs (i.e. Oculus Quest) directly through a web browser. Such a modular framework offers advanced functionalities like visual immersive analytics and integration with complex multimedia content. Users virtually immerse in the outcrop enabling real-time querying of all geometries, annotations and measurement functionalities (e.g. examining 3D fossils and other material or associated information).
This digital approach offers a unique opportunity for saving temporary outcrops, geological features or fossils in virtual environments, and it will contribute to facilitate examination of the most relevant outcrops of the Paleogene by scientists, and to promote and disseminate geo-education.
How to cite: Monechi, S., Alegret, L., Payros, A., Agnini, C., Scaduto, G., and Fanini, B.: An immersive virtual approach to enhance visibility of global stratotype and reference sections of the Paleogene, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8669, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8669, 2025.
CSV and Excel formats are among the most common storage formats for data sharing, especially in scientific and government contexts. Chaves-Fraga notes that a significant amount of public data is published in tabular formats such as CSV and Excel, which can hinder data accessibility and interoperability due to their lack of standardized metadata (Chaves-Fraga, 2020). This is in line with the findings of Burg et al. (2019). They highlight that although CSV files are widely used due to their simplicity, they often lack the necessary metadata to ensure data quality and provenance, which are crucial for compliance with the FAIR principles. Furthermore, Kaur et al. (2021) highlight that many health information systems allow data to be exported in CSV format, which is accessible but does not provide the semantic interoperability needed for effective data sharing and reuse. Furthermore, the limitations of CSV and Excel formats are compounded when datasets are converted to SQLite databases.
The NFS group (NuoroForestrySchool.io) has developed an open source Python-based application (https://gitlab.com/NuoroForestrySchool/nfs-data-documentation-procedure) that facilitates the organization of the data a researcher is willing to share.
The application is designed to be used as a command line tool or through a graphical interface. It reads as input a spreadsheet file with one sheet for each table, plus an application-specific sheet defining the database schema, the data dictionary, the DataCite metadata, and other specific metadata (extended title, abstract/summary). The output of the procedure is represented by a SQLite file containing all the data and metadata, as well as an image of the graphical ERD-like schema, and a formal pdf document presenting the contents of the database. The SQLite file is a metadata-rich SQL-based database, taking full advantage of relational features and thus improving data accessibility, interoperability, and reusability by humans and machines.
The use of the procedure is demonstrated by processing a simple but significant use case.
LITERATURE
How to cite: Scotti, R., Giadrossich, F., and Casalta Badetti, A.: NFS-FAIR-DDP the data documentation procedure developed by NuoroForestrySchool as open source tool to upgrade entry level data sharing by exploiting the SQL standard, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9663, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9663, 2025.
Over the past few years, SISAL has released several versions of a global speleothem database as a community effort. The latest version, SISALv3, features 800+ records from both hemispheres, multiple proxies (stable isotopes (δ18O,δ13C) and trace elements (Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca, U/Ca, P/Ca and Sr isotopes)), and extensive metadata about cave sites and specimens. A major strength of the SISAL database is that it is a high-quality dataset with multiple manual and auto quality control checks performed by members and experts of the speleothem community, becoming de facto the gold standard for speleothem data. In the past few years, the database has been increasingly used in studies improving speleothem proxy understanding, as well as for global analysis of key past climate intervals and global climate patterns.
However, SISAL is organized only as a temporary working group within the Past Global Changes network (PAGES) and is scheduled to wind down after its current phase. This poses an essential question for this community-led effort: how can we place ourselves so that the carefully created database can be maintained and grow beyond the intended life cycle of the original working group?
To increase the visibility and ease of access to this data, accelerate database updates, and enable long-term data stewardship in a community of similar paleo datasets, SISAL has recently decided to join Neotoma as a constituent database, through a data migration that has been supported by the ETH Open Research Data program. Neotoma, a “database of databases” within the palaeoecological and paleoenvironmental sciences, provides a structure for on-going community data stewardship as well as a strong backend for SISAL data through standardisation of data entry, quality-check workflows. The SISAL team plans to maintain the popular SISAL web app for finding and downloading data, currently linked to SISALv3, and in the future plans to update the web app to dynamically link to SISAL-Neotoma holdings. This SISAL-Neotoma partnership also helps connect speleothem isotope data to data from other proxy communities, such as pollen or biomarkers, which can lead to further synergies to be exploited in the future.
How to cite: Endres, L., Kaushal, N., Goring, S., Dominguez, S., Lechleitner, F., Stoll, H., and Williams, J. W.: Toward Long-Term Data Stewardship: Merging The Speleothem Database SISAL into Neotoma, the Palaeoecological “Database of Databases”, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18390, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18390, 2025.
SubMachine is a collection of web-based tools for the interactive visualisation, analysis, and quantitative comparison of global-scale datasets of the Earth's interior [1]. It focuses on making regional and global seismic tomography models easily accessible to the wider solid Earth community to facilitate collaborative exploration. Over 30 tomography models can be visualised and explored—individually, side-by-side, or through statistical and averaging tools. SubMachine also serves diverse non-tomographic datasets, including plate reconstruction models, normal mode observations, global crustal structure, shear wave splitting, geoid, marine gravity, vertical gravity gradients, and global topography in adjustable degrees of spherical harmonic resolution.
To ensure continuity beyond the DEEP TIME ERC project [2], SubMachine is transitioning to a new home within ORFEUS (Observatories and Research Facilities for European Seismology, http://orfeus-eu.org/). This transition secures SubMachine’s long-term sustainability and further integrates it into the broader seismological research infrastructure.
In preparation for this move, SubMachine has undergone significant modernization. The entire platform has been migrated to Python 3.12. The transition from Basemap to Cartopy enhances long-term stability, though some projections may experience slower performance. New features include cross-sections through vote maps [3]. These advancements, along with various performance improvements, position SubMachine as a more robust and sustainable resource for the geoscience community.
[1] Hosseini, K., Matthews, K. J., Sigloch, K., Shephard, G. E., Domeier, M., & Tsekhmistrenko, M. (2018). SubMachine: Web-Based Tools for Exploring Seismic Tomography and Other Models of Earth's Deep Interior. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 19(5), 1464-1483.
[2] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/833275
[3] Shephard, G. E., Matthews, K. J., Hosseini, K., & Domeier, M. (2017). On the consistency of seismically imaged lower mantle slabs. Scientific reports, 7(1), 10976.
How to cite: Tsekhmistrenko, M., Hosseini, K., Sigloch, K., Shephard, G., Domeier, M., and Matthews, K.: SubMachine ORFEUS integration: Web-based tools for exploring seismic tomography models, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13606, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13606, 2025.
The past decade has seen the consolidation of open access practices in scientific publishing, with funding bodies, international agencies and academic institutions requiring free access to not only scientific papers but also other output such as datasets and computer codes. The transition to open access practices has led multiple academic publishers to offer Gold Open Access (GOA) schemes, under which scientific papers are free-to-read. Compared to the traditional publication models, GOA comes at a much higher cost for authors. These practices have had a documented negative impact on the scientific publishing landscape, from the rise of predatory journals to the broadening of the economic divide between academic institutions.
Partly in response, different fields of Earth Sciences have seen the rise of several community-led Diamond Open Access journals (DOAJ). These journals are free-to-publish and free-to-read. The aim is to remove financial barriers to scientific publishing by making peer-reviewed articles available at no cost to both authors and readers, thus offering a platform for true open science. DOAJs are created and maintained by the very same scientific community they aim to serve, thus removing economical and business considerations that drive a large fraction of the modern publishing landscape. These community-led journals offer a high-quality alternative to classical for-profit scientific journals.
We are pleased to announce a new DOAJ initiative called Geodynamica. Coordinated by a core committee of seven scientists, Geodynamica aims at promoting academic discourse and disseminating research pertaining to the quantitative study of Earth and (exo-)planetary internal structure, dynamics, and evolution from observational to modelling perspectives.
Geodynamica, which is expected to launch in early 2025, enjoys the support of eScholarship (University of California), and hugely benefits from the experience of existing community-led journals within the geoscience field, such as Volcanica, Tektonika and Seismica, as well as the help of a pre-launch editorial team composed of a dozen of established volunteer scientists.
In this contribution, we will provide the vision behind this initiative, report on the structure of this journal, its scope, and the remarkable community effort that will make this new DOAJ a reality.
How to cite: Maffei, S., Arnould, M., Bethkenhagen, M., Duretz, T., Gouiza, M., Hwang, L., and van Zelst, I.: Slinging Earth & (exo)Planets Structure and Dynamics into Diamond Open Access, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-16049, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-16049, 2025.
Scientific data needs to be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). Scientific publications should also follow these accessibility principles. Diamond Open Access publishing represents an approach where articles are free for all to read, without journal subscription, and free to publish, without article processing fees for authors, who also retain the copyright of their work. Thus, it strongly contributes to FAIR, open and transparent scientific publishing - promoting inclusivity and eliminating barriers.
Geomorphica (http://geomorphica.org) is a community-led and -driven scientific journal that fosters academic discourse and research advances in the field of geomorphology. It is hosted by Penn State University Libraries, supported by the International Association of Geomorphology and a proud part of the family of Diamond Open-Access journals in the Geosciences.
Geomorphica is run by over 30 volunteers that embody the editorial, equity diversity and inclusion, communications, and ethics teams and contribute to all functions including administration, managing, editing, reviewing, typesetting, and visual branding. Geomorphica has been open for submission since June 2023 and welcomes manuscripts related (but not limited) to landscapes and landforms, Earth’s and planetary near-surface processes, and the mechanisms, dynamics and timescales pertaining to these processes.
Here, we introduce our diverse team of volunteers, give an update on the number of manuscripts we have handled so far, and share our experiences related to setting up and running a Diamond Open Access journal. Further, we exemplify what FAIR can stand for in scientific publishing, showcasing how Geomorphica is addressing the principle. We welcome feedback from the broader community to help us continually improve Geomorphica and look forward to your involvement with the initiative.
How to cite: Stammler, M., Burrows, K., Grimm, B., Breda, C., Lai, L. S.-H., Giaime, M., Fernández, R., and Lefebvre, A.: For a FAIR publishing environment: Geomorphica, the Diamond Open-Access Journal for Geomorphology, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4541, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4541, 2025.
Science, without effective dissemination, has a very short life and little impact. Yet, most scientific research is hidden away behind exclusive and expensive paywalls imposed by traditional publishers. Tektonika is an Earth Science community-led diamond open-access journal (DOAJ: free for authors, free for readers) publishing peer reviewed research in tectonics and structural geology. It is a grass-roots initiative driven by the enthusiasm and devotion of a wide and diverse spectrum of Earth Scientists from around the globe, intended to help shape a new landscape for publishing in the geosciences.
Since its debut at EGU2022, Tektonika has experienced steady growth, fueled by a consistent stream of manuscript submissions. Tektonika’s success reflects broader trends among community-driven DOAJs, demonstrating their ability not only to survive but to flourish. The strong support of the Earth Science community has been instrumental—from authors entrusting their work to the journal, to individuals amplifying its reach via social media, and volunteers contributing to editorial tasks, peer review, and the formatting of accepted articles. Tektonika stands as a testament to the power of collective effort in transforming scientific publishing.
How to cite: Perez-Diaz, L., Welford, K., and Gouiza, M. and the the Tektonika Executive Editor team: Tektonika: breaking barriers in scientific publishing one manuscript at a time, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19987, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19987, 2025.
The planetary science community is launching a new journal, Planetary Research, as an alternative to traditional publishing models that profit from publicly funded research. This initiative aims to address accessibility and inclusivity challenges in scientific publishing by adopting the diamond open access model, ensuring no fees for authors or readers. Unlike gold, green, and hybrid open access journals, which impose significant financial barriers on authors through article processing charges or hinder the availability of their research outputs via subscriptions, diamond open access relies on minimal operational costs, achieved through free and open-source software for editorial and archival tasks and volunteer contributions.
Scheduled to launch in January 2026, Planetary Research will be governed transparently by members of the planetary science community, providing opportunities for researchers at all career stages to contribute to its development and operations. An open call for editorial board and steering committee members will be announced at the 2025 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. The journal will cover the full scope of planetary science, including extrasolar systems, exoplanets, spacecraft and Earth-based observatory data, laboratory studies of extraterrestrial materials, theoretical and numerical modeling, and terrestrial analog research. Original research will be published as long-format articles or short letters. Peer reviews as well as assessments and recommendations by the editorial team will be linked to the published article on the journal website
By eliminating financial barriers, the journal aims to democratize access and dissemination of scientific knowledge, promote inclusivity, and foster collaboration. To ensure sustainability, Planetary Research will leverage volunteer-driven editorial processes, open-source platforms for managing both the peer review process and journal website, as well as low-cost infrastructure for web hosting and digital object identifiers (DOIs). Geoscience diamond open access journals typically report annual operational costs of approximately USD 1000, demonstrating the feasibility of this model. We are currently assessing funding possibilities to cover these operational costs and ensure the perenniality of the journal. The journal will also prioritize outreach to both the scientific community and the general public with the creation of a volunteer-driven media team, emphasizing the societal value of open access to planetary research as community participation is central to Planetary Research. Everyone is welcome to join our pre-launch discussions that are hosted on an online forum accessible via the pre-launch website (https://planetary-research-journal.online/). This open forum will remain active post-launch, allowing members to engage with the steering committee, editorial board, and media team, in order to adapt and evolve the journal in response to community needs. By embracing the principles of accessibility, inclusivity, and transparency, Planetary Research seeks to set a new standard in scientific publishing, ensuring that the benefits of planetary science are freely available to all.
How to cite: Broquet, A., Burkhard, L. M. L., and Wieczorek, M. A. and the The Planetary Research journal team: Planetary Research: Advancing Accessibility and Inclusivity through Diamond Open Access Publishing , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-16104, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-16104, 2025.
'GeoFutures' is the Geological Society of London’s flagship conference series focussing on 21st century geoscience and solutions that geoscientists can offer to global challenges. The series cycles through the Society’s five strategic science themes, with the inaugural 2023 meeting centred on the theme of 'Digital Geoscience' and the 2024 meeting focussed on the theme of ‘Planetary Geoscience’.
Both meetings have sought to foster collaboration within and out of the geoscience community by bringing together researchers, engineers, citizen scientists, policymakers, funders and representatives from government agencies. We actively seek to encourage attendance by groups and individuals who do not traditionally attend scientific meetings. The series aims to cultivate networks and research partnerships, as well as to spark innovative ideas to shape the response of geoscientists to future issues.
In addition to the disciplinary topics, sessions have focussed on the application of breakthrough technologies and methods, as well as considering how geoscientists might apply these to scientific and societal problems both current and future. Fundamental to this is consideration of how best to ensure that subsequent generations of geoscientists and geoscience facilities are adequately prepared, as well as the importance of communicating geoscience issues and solutions to the public effectively. A large part of both conversations involves promoting open data and science, and collaboration between the many varied interested parties.
In 2025, the series turns to the Society’s ‘Climate and Ecology’ theme, integrating themes from a series of talks and discussions, around the UK, related to climate and ecological research and issues. On a continuing basis, we aim to demonstrate that bringing together contributors and organisations from diverse sectors at novel, discipline-specific meetings is an effective measure to support the UK and wider international geoscience communities to tackle current and future challenges.
How to cite: Harvey, T., Spofforth-Jones, E., McCowan, E., and Stephen, N.: GeoFutures: bridging the gap between geoscience and (dis)engaged audiences for the 21st century, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12152, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12152, 2025.
To create tailored tools and solutions that improve our ability to mitigate and respond to environmental challenges, we need to understand how to efficiently communicate complex information to the intended audience. One of the core aims of the UK’s Environmental Data Service is to better engage with users and ensure their needs are central to everything we do.
How we design, maintain and share our services hasn’t traditionally been prioritised with user feedback in mind. Many of our teams and systems are now having to change the way we work and learn new skills. There was no central location to share good practice about user-centred design of tools/services specifically for environmental sciences. We wanted to create guidance for our staff and others who develop and maintain data services for environmental science.
We have created a ‘user-centred design toolkit for environmental services’ with the aim of supporting data, software and design experts to create user-friendly and effective environmental data services. This toolkit provides a range of resources, case studies and guidance needed to collaborate with users, gather insights, and co-design solutions that work. The toolkit has been shaped by collaborations across all environmental science domains, with a range of experts in user design, data management, communications and engagement, and software engineering.
The toolkit is still in early development. We are looking to share our progress so far, understand if this is something the wider community would like to contribute to or partake in a community of practice.
How to cite: Townsend, P., Alexander, J., Darroch, L., Green, D., Hanley, M., Heysham, N., McCormack, M., Osunkoya, O., Poulter, D., Raveendran, S., Tvaranavicius, P., Watson, C., and Zwagerman, T.: User-centred design for environmental data services , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4414, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4414, 2025.
