This guide defines the environment as the natural world both unaffected and disrupted by humans.
Please apply the search strategies outlined in Introduction to Finding Data with the keywords below to help orchestrate a search to find datasets related to the environment.
Keywords: habitat, geoscience, ecology, climate, precipitation, atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, terrestrial hydrosphere, weather, climate change, meteorology, topographic, terrain, elevation, altitude, bathymetry, aquatic, maritime, ocean, sea, river, lake, marine, nautical, coastal, littoral, pollution, deforestation
"The Allen Coral Atlas maps the world’s coral reefs and monitors their threats to provide actionable data and a shared understanding of coastal ecosystems." Partners of the project can be found here.
This database focuses on the energy issues that have led to global warming. The holdings are hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy's Environmental System Science Data Infrastructure for the Virtual Ecosystem (ESS-DIVE).
An alternate website from NOAA that hosts data, maps, and other visualizations of climate change. Information provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Data focused on the atmosphere, cryosphere, paleoclimate, reanalysis, climate indices, land, and ocean this database hosts datasets for measuring the present climate and predicting future risk. This is part of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Climate includes air-sea interface, climate indices, cloud characteristics, radiation budget, atmosphere, forecasts, hydrology, ice, oceanography, and historical model simulations. Information is compiled by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society @ Columbia Climate School (IRI/LDEO).
Global Climate Data of the past, present, and future are provided by the European Commission, Copernicus, European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and the Climate Change Service.
"It provides free, regular, and systematic authoritative information on the state of the Blue (physical), White (sea ice), and Green (biogeochemical) ocean, on a global and regional scale. It is funded by the European Commission (EC) and implemented by Mercator Ocean International."
This database hosts "geochemical, petrological, and related data" in relation to the "earth, ocean, and environmental sciences." A list of team members can be found here. Collaborators of the project are located here.
Database created by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) focused on earth observation data, including that of the atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, terrestrial hydrosphere, land surface, and sun-earth interactions.
Home to a wide variety of datasets that can be placed on their virtual map or exported, including aerial photography, radiometer, satellite coverage, digital elevation, digital line graphs, heat mapping, Landsat imagery, and radar among others. This information is provided by the U.S. Geology Survey.
Primarily focused on greenhouse case and air pollution created by humans. EDGAR is part of the European Commission, which is part of the European Union.
Geospatial Dataset Database for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Covers a wide array of datasets at a national and regional level.
Part of the Forrest Service for the USDA, this dataset primarily focuses on historical and projected climate datasets related to precipitation, snow, heat, and drought.
Datasets primarily focused on hydrography and bathymetry, assembled by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)
Collection of international datasets on marine geography, biology, and oceanography. Countries involved in this agency can be found here.
The MRLC pulls land coverage and ecosystem data from a wide variety of U.S. agencies, listed here.
Hosts information on the United States atmospheric, coastal, geophysical, and oceanic research. Information provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Drought-specific datasets from NOAA from 1951 to the present day. Information provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The database hosts meteorological data and numerical weather predictions, used by the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NHMSs) of ECMWF members and co-operating states and their authorized users.
Archive of the National maps, stratigraphy, topography, and geochronology. Information is primarily provided by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Association of American State Geologists (AASG).
Geospatial data in this database comes from a variety of international sources from the GeoNetwork OpenSource and the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. Members that contribute can be found here. Supporters of the project are listed here.
Uses remote sensing data for detecting plastic in our oceans. Funded by the European Space Agency.
Hosts high-resolution topographic data, funded by the National Science Foundation's Division of Earth Science (NSF-EAR) as part of the Geoscience Network (GEON) project.
Datasets about seas and oceans collected by Pan-European agencies, managed by SeaDataNet, EMODnet, and Copernicus CMEMS.
"Sites with real-time or recent surface-water, groundwater, or water-quality data." Information is provided by the U.S. Geological Survey as well as state and local organizations that report to them.
The World Ocean Database is an archive of "atmospheric, coastal, geophysical, and oceanic research", with information updated quarterly. Data is provided by the National Center for Environmental Information.