NASA's Earth science data archive holds more than 100 petabytes of free and open-access data and is growing rapidly. This is welcome news to the community of Earth science data users around the globe who rely on NASA data to conduct their scientific research and monitor conditions on land, in the ocean, and in the atmosphere. At the same time, this vast and ever-growing catalog can make it difficult for data users, especially those new to working with remotely sensed data, to find the data that meet their needs.
To address this challenge, NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project created Earthdata Search, a web application that enables users to discover and access more than 50,000 Earth observation data collections from NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), as well as from U.S. and international agencies across the Earth science disciplines. Using NASA's Common Metadata Repository (CMR) as a foundation, Earthdata Search eases the technical burden on users by providing them with a high-quality tool that makes it easy to search for datasets by date and geographic area, preview browse images for select datasets, and download data.
"Earthdata Search is your one-stop shop for finding and accessing NASA Earth science data." said Alicia Aleman, the Earthdata Search product owner. "Users can search more than one billion individual data files all in one place; it makes it possible to get the data you're interested in—and only those data—quickly and easily."
Earthdata Search Requires an Earthdata Login to Download Data
While users don't need any special knowledge or training to use Earthdata Search, they do need an Earthdata Login account to download NASA Earth science data. Along with facilitating data downloads, Earthdata Login provides an improved user experience by enabling single sign-on functionality, the ability to receive news updates and notifications about new data and services, and the creation of customizable interfaces and saved preferences. Further, logging into Earthdata Search allows users to download data collections or granules directly to a local machine or add them to a project folder.
Getting Started with Earthdata Search: Searching for and Filtering Data
Although it would be impossible to cover all the ways a user might use Earthdata Search to find and download data within the framework of this article, most searches include three elements: a keyword search, a date range, and a geographic area of interest. This article provides an overview of this approach to using Earthdata Search.
There are three main components of Earthdata Search: The search panel on the left, which allows users to search for and filter data; the results panel in the center, which displays the data collections resulting from the user's search criteria; and the map on the right, which displays a map of Earth's surface. Once a user is logged in, he or she can begin their search by typing a data identifier or keyword (i.e., science parameter, data product, sensor, satellite, etc.) into the search box at the top of the left panel.
After entering a search term and pressing enter, the search results (i.e., the data collections associated with that keyword or search term) will appear in Earthdata Search's center panel. By default, search results are ordered by usage (the most popular collections are listed first). Users can re-order these results by relevance to search criteria or start or end date by clicking on the "Sort" button found in the top-right of the center panel. Users also can use the "View" button (next to "Sort"), which allows them to view their search results as a list or a table.
