Earth Observation Data

NASA promotes the full and open sharing of all its data to research and applications communities, private industry, academia, and the general public. In order to meet the needs of these different communities, NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) has provided various ways to discover, access, and use the data.

If you are new to using NASA Earth science data, Getting Started is an ideal place to begin; it provides an introduction to finding, using, and visualizing data. You can also discover data for various instrument measurements by scientific discipline or get information on the application of certain datasets to a given topic through our data pathfinders.

Regardless of where you begin, there are three primary ways of accessing and using the datasets.

Find Data

Here you will find several different web-based options for searching and downloading datasets from all of NASA’s data collections.

• Search by keyword or instrument, geographical or temporal extents, and more through Earthdata Search;
• Discover near real-time data through the Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE) and the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS);
• Use the Common Metadata Repository (CMR), a metadata system that catalogs Earth Science data and associated service metadata records; or
• Browse data and services through the Global Change Master Directory (GCMD).

Use Data

Discover tools and techniques for accessing, subsetting, filtering, visualizing, mapping, and analyzing data. Data recipes, pathfinders, and webinars provide guidance on how to use NASA data and tools.

Visualize Data

Here you will find several ways to find or create visual representations of the data. Much of the instrument data is returned as quantitative values; to help users understand the data, EOSDIS has developed several ways to visualize the information.

• Worldview — an interactive web-based tool providing access to full-resolution, global satellite imagery.
• Worldview Snapshots — a lightweight tool for creating image snapshots from a selection of popular NASA satellite imagery layers.
• Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) — allows you to obtain imagery through your own client application by way of standards-based web services and formats.