Environment & earth science
USGS The National Map
usgs.gov
Environment & earth sciencefree
Downloadable US elevation, hydrography, and topographic layers. The user guides and layer documentation make useful GIS reference sources.
The elevation, hydrography, and topographic layers here are built for GIS work, but it's the user guides and layer documentation that work as notebook sources, explaining what each dataset measures and how it was produced. That makes it useful for grounding the methodology section of a notebook about terrain or watershed analysis. The layers themselves are GIS files, not something you can hand to a notebook directly.
Import into Gemini Notebook
- 1Copy the link above (or a specific page from the site).
- 2In your notebook, click Add source → Website.
- 3Paste the link and confirm — several links can be pasted at once, one per line.
Raw climate and geodata rarely imports directly — bring in the documentation, technical reports and summary pages instead of the datasets themselves.
More environment & earth science sources
- Copernicus Climate Data StoreEU climate reanalysis and projection datasets such as ERA5. Raw data needs processing first; the dataset documentation pages import as sources.
- CORINE Land CoverEuropean land-cover maps in 44 classes, tracked since 1990. The GIS data itself won't import; use the product documentation and technical reports.
- EarthChem Data ServicesOpen geochemistry, geochronology and petrology datasets from the earth science community. Good grounding for rock and sediment chemistry questions.
- EMODnet Digital BathymetrySeafloor depth model for Europe's sea basins built from thousands of surveys. The documentation pages work as sources for marine mapping projects.
- FAOSTATUN statistics on crops, livestock, land use and food security for 245 countries, with free downloads back to 1961. Strong grounding for agriculture research.
- GBIFOpen records of where species have been observed worldwide — hundreds of millions of occurrences. Species and dataset pages cite the original surveys.
- GEBCO – General Bathymetric Chart of the OceansThe standard global ocean depth grid, free to download. Its documentation and cookbook pages ground questions about seafloor mapping.
- Global Human Settlement LayerEU JRC grids tracking built-up land and population worldwide across decades. The technical report PDFs import cleanly and explain each layer's methodology.
- International Energy Agency DataEnergy production, consumption, and emissions statistics by country. Free report PDFs and data explorers; full datasets require a license.
- International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) DataCore samples, borehole logs, and site data from decades of scientific ocean drilling. Expedition reports are open-access and import well as PDFs.
- IPCC Data Distribution CentreClimate scenario data and socio-economic baselines behind IPCC assessments. Pair its guidance documents with the assessment reports for a grounded climate notebook.
- IRIS / EarthScope Data ServicesOpen seismic waveform archives and station metadata for global earthquake research. Tutorials and data product pages work well as web sources.
- ISC BulletinReviewed global earthquake catalogue reaching back to 1900, with relocated hypocentres. Event pages have stable URLs that work as Website sources.
- NASA EarthdataGateway to NASA's satellite and field observations of Earth. Dataset landing pages and user guides make solid sources for remote-sensing notebooks.
- National Weather ServiceOfficial US forecasts, warnings, and climate records. Storm summaries and climate report pages import well for weather-event research.
- NOAA NCEIThe US archive of climate, ocean, and geophysical records. Monthly climate reports and station data exports ground climate-trend notebooks in real numbers.
- Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS)UNESCO-backed records of where marine species live and in what numbers. Export occurrence data as CSV to ground marine ecology notebooks.
- OneGeology PortalInteractive map layering geological survey data from countries worldwide. Best paired with survey publications, since the maps themselves don't import.
- PANGAEAEarth and environmental science data repository with DOIs. Each dataset's landing page carries methods and metadata that ground climate and ocean research well.
- U.S. Energy Information AdministrationUS energy numbers: production, consumption, prices, and forecasts. The Annual Energy Outlook PDFs work especially well as notebook sources.
- USGS EarthExplorerPortal for Landsat scenes, aerial photos, and land-cover products. The imagery itself won't import, but scene metadata and docs support remote-sensing work.
- USGS Earthquake CatalogSearchable record of earthquakes worldwide, historical through near real-time. Filter by magnitude, date, and region, then export events as CSV.
- USGS National Geologic Map Database (NGMDB)Archive of US geologic maps, reports, and stratigraphic names. Many older survey publications are scanned PDFs that upload straight into a notebook.
- World Bank Climate Change Knowledge PortalHistorical and projected climate variables by country, plus risk profiles. The country climate summaries work well as Website sources.
- World Ocean AtlasNOAA climatologies of ocean temperature, salinity, oxygen, and nutrients. The atlas documentation PDFs are the part worth importing.
- WorldClimGridded global climate layers, historical and future scenarios, for ecology and GIS modeling. Import the methods pages to document your variables.