ESSDD Earth System Science Data Discussions ESSDD Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss. 1866-3591 Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/essd-2026-576 Updating the ESA Earth System Model for Future Gravity Mission Simulation Studies: ESA ESM 3.0 Shihora Linus https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2459-6606 1 Jensen Laura 1 Boergens Eva https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6178-9402 1 Klemann Volker https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8342-8947 1 Dill Robert https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9596-267X 1 Sasgen Ingo 2 Wouters Bert 3 Schlaak Marius https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0349-1274 4 Sauber-Rosenberg Jeanne 5 Han Shin-Chan 6 Tanaka Yoshiyuki https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1327-8127 7 Braitenberg Carla https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7277-816X 8 Javed Muhammad Tahir 8 Maurizio Gerardo 8 Lecomte Hugo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7007-4748 9 Babeyko Andrey 1 Hovius Niels 1 Dobslaw Henryk https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1776-3314 1 GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany TU Delft, Civil Engineering, Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Netherlands Technical University of Munich, Astronomical and Physical Geodesy, Munich, Germany Geodesy and Geophysics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA Ohio State University, School of Earth Sciences, Columbus, OH, United States University of Tokyo, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Tokyo, Japan Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Trieste, Via Weiss 1, 34100 Trieste, Italy Finnish Geospatial Research Institute, National Land Survey of Finland 31 08 2026 2026 1 23 Copyright: © 2026 Linus Shihora et al. 2026 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is available from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-576/ The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-576/essd-2026-576.pdf

<p class="p1">The ESA Earth System Model (ESA ESM) provides a synthetic data set of the time-variable global gravity field that includes realistic mass variations in the atmosphere, oceans, terrestrial water storage, continental ice sheets, and the solid Earth on a wide range of spatial and temporal frequencies.</p> <p class="p1">We here present the details of the newly released version 3.0 of the ESA ESM which has been updated to reflect the increased capabilities of future satellite gravimetry missions and is designed to be used as a source input model in closed loop simulation studies. The changes to the previous ESA ESM 2.0 include the utilization of a small ensemble of co- and post-seismic earthquake signals, an updated GIA model, additional mass balance signals from previously not considered Arctic glaciers, sub-monthly surface-mass balance changes and a more realistic representation of ice sheet dynamics. Extreme hydrometeorological events as well as climate-driven and anthropogenic impacts on continental water storage are represented through an update of the hydrological component. Additionally, the ESM separately includes ocean bottom pressure variations along the western slope of the Atlantic, representing variations in the meridional overturning circulation as a critically important component of the interactively coupled global climate system. ESA ESM 3.0 is available with 6-hour resolution from January 2007 until December 2020 as separate layers representing the respective dynamic processes considered. It is augmented with synthetic error time series for atmosphere and ocean as well as hydrology to facilitate stochastical modelling of residual background model errors.</p> <p class="p1">The updated ESA ESM 3.0 is available under:</p> <p class="p1"><em>Shihora, Linus; Klemann, Volker; Jensen, Laura; Dill, Robert; Sasgen, Ingo; Wouters, Bert; Sauber, Jeanne; Han, Shin-Chan; Tanaka, Yoshiyuki; Braitenberg, Carla; Javed, Muhammad Tahir; Maurizio, Gerardo; Lecomte, Hugo; Babeyko, Andrey; Hovius, Niels; Dobslaw, Henryk (2026): The ESA Earth System Model 3.0. GFZ Data Services. <a href="https://doi.org/10.5880/GFZ.UEOS.2026.001" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.5880/GFZ.UEOS.2026.001</a></em>

 European Space Agency 4000145265/24/NL/SC