The EOSC Node Data Terra on the Earth system sciences: a way to consolidate a thematic data space

The complexity of Earth, climate, environmental, and biological systems and processes, together with the significant improvement in multi-modal and multi-source data resolution and precision, implies that any scientific approach focusing on a specific area or dimension of the Earth system must increasingly integrate information and data from multiple fields of investigation. Today, it is crucial to apply multi- and interdisciplinary approaches that require easy access to qualified long-term data from other domains, as well as to data products that are easily usable by non-specialists. With this in mind, major challenges are linked to scientific knowledge of measurement data from spaceborne, airborne, and in-situ experiments, as well as from numerical models; uncertainties regarding future drivers of environmental transitions; and the effectiveness of sustainable measures in the context of evolving norms and values. These gaps and challenges particularly concern data quality and data veracity. The growing requirements for data in terms of timeliness of supply, availability across multiple spatial and temporal scales, length and stability of data records, and data product generation necessitate compliance with quality standards on the one hand. On the other hand, user support, documentation, and training materials are equally essential to ensure that data usage is truly effective, operational, and aligned with user needs. Further progress is required in terms of semantic and technical interoperability, particularly between climate, environmental, and socio-economic data. From a technical perspective, despite significant efforts already undertaken (e.g. OGC, INSPIRE), the current setup remains suboptimal in several respects.

Considering these assumptions, the recently established EOSC Node Data Terra, oriented toward Earth system scientific domains, aims to facilitate seamless access to high-quality, trusted, FAIR, and AI-ready multi-domain and multi-modal data for Earth, climate, environment, and biodiversity systems. This access is supported by rich metadata, semantic interoperability, and provenance information. The node also enables cross-domain data analysis workflows that are crucial for addressing emerging and urgent multidisciplinary research challenges related to global change, adaptation, extreme event characterisation, and societal impacts, while strengthening linkages with other data spaces and data hubs at European and global scales. Finally, through the implementation of a system-of-systems approach, the EOSC Node can support and participate to the consolidation of a thematic data space in close collaboration with other national and European environment-related infrastructures, fostering the linkages with European organisations and initiatives such as Destination Earth, AI Factories, and the HPC federation.