# A Hierarchical Multi-Agent System for Autonomous Discovery in Geoscientific Data Archives

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.21351 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.21351/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Web, search, and research agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 29 of its 53 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 24 Feb 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Web, search, and research agents](https://mlsanity.com/agents/web-search-and-research-agents/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 29 of 29)

- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11366/) (2023)
- [Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04761/) (2023)
- [GPQA: A Graduate-Level Google-Proof Q&A Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12022/) (2023)
- [MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.00352/) (2023)
- [Improving Factuality and Reasoning in Language Models through Multiagent Debate](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14325/) (2023)
- [A Survey on Hallucination in Large Language Models: Principles, Taxonomy, Challenges, and Open Questions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.05232/) (2023)
- [CAMEL: Communicative Agents for "Mind" Exploration of Large Language Model Society](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17760/) (2023)
- [HuggingGPT: Solving AI Tasks with ChatGPT and its Friends in Hugging Face](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17580/) (2023)
- [AlphaEvolve: A coding agent for scientific and algorithmic discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.13131/) (2025)
- [Large Language Model based Multi-Agents: A Survey of Progress and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01680/) (2024)
- [ChemCrow: Augmenting large-language models with chemistry tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.05376/) (2023)
- [The AI Scientist-v2: Workshop-Level Automated Scientific Discovery via Agentic Tree Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.08066/) (2025)
- [Accelerating scientific discovery with Co-Scientist](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.18864/) (2025)
- [SciBench: Evaluating College-Level Scientific Problem-Solving Abilities of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.10635/) (2023)
- [Agentic Retrieval-Augmented Generation: A Survey on Agentic RAG](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.09136/) (2025)
- [Data Interpreter: An LLM Agent For Data Science](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.18679/) (2024)
- [DS-Agent: Automated Data Science by Empowering Large Language Models with Case-Based Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.17453/) (2024)
- [SciAgents: Automating scientific discovery through multi-agent intelligent graph reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.05556/) (2024)
- [Data-Copilot: Bridging Billions of Data and Humans with Autonomous Workflow](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.07209/) (2023)
- [Robin: A multi-agent system for automating scientific discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.13400/) (2025)
- [OceanGPT: A Large Language Model for Ocean Science Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.02031/) (2023)
- [GeoGPT: Understanding and Processing Geospatial Tasks through An Autonomous GPT](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.07930/) (2023)
- [AtomAgents: Alloy design and discovery through physics-aware multi-modal multi-agent artificial intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.10022/) (2024)
- [GeoGalactica: A Scientific Large Language Model in Geoscience](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.00434/) (2023)
- [An Autonomous GIS Agent Framework for Geospatial Data Retrieval](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.21024/) (2024)
- [An LLM Agent for Automatic Geospatial Data Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.18792/) (2024)
- [Accelerating Earth Science Discovery via Multi-Agent LLM Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.05854/) (2025)
- [AI-Generated Code Is Not Reproducible (Yet): An Empirical Study of Dependency Gaps in LLM-Based Coding Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.22387/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [HVR-Met: A Hypothesis-Verification-Replanning Agentic System for Extreme Weather Diagnosis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.01121/) (2026)
- [Towards Multi-Agent Autonomous Reasoning in Hydrodynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.01102/) (2026)
- [Earth Science Foundation Models: From Perception to Reasoning and Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.12542/) (2026)
- [CMIP-Forge: An Agentic System that Retrieves, Computes, and Self-Reviews Climate Science](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.17076/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The rapid accumulation of Earth science data has created a significant scalability challenge; while repositories like PANGAEA host vast collections of datasets, citation metrics indicate that a substantial portion remains underutilized, limiting data reusability. Here we present PANGAEA-GPT, a hierarchical multi-agent framework designed for autonomous data discovery and analysis. Unlike standard Large Language Model (LLM) wrappers, our architecture implements a centralized Supervisor-Worker topology with strict data-type-aware routing, sandboxed deterministic code execution, and self-correction via execution feedback, enabling agents to diagnose and resolve runtime errors. Through use-case scenarios spanning physical oceanography and ecology, we demonstrate the system's capacity to execute complex, multi-step workflows with minimal human intervention. This framework provides a methodology for querying and analyzing heterogeneous repository data through coordinated agent workflows.