Earthdata Search¶
Earthdata Search is a web application developed by NASA’S Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) that allows users to search, compare, visualize, and access NASA’s Earth science data collections.
Using Earthdata Search to Access NISAR Data¶
1. Filter by data product type¶
Earthdata Search organizes data by product type (called a “collection” in Earthdata Search). A collection must be selected before doing any additional filtering.
Figure 1:Search using the search bar.
To search for a specific product type, input the corresponding short name from Table 1 into the search bar. For a description of NISAR’s data product types, see Data Products Overview.
Table 1:NISAR Data Product Earthdata Search Short Name List
| Product | Short Name |
|---|---|
| SME2 | NISAR_L3_SME2_BETA_V1 |
| GCOV | NISAR_L2_GCOV_BETA_V1 |
| GUNW | NISAR_L2_GUNW_BETA_V1 |
| GOFF | NISAR_L2_GOFF_BETA_V1 |
| GSLC | NISAR_L2_GSLC_BETA_V1 |
| RUNW | NISAR_L1_RUNW_BETA_V1 |
| RIFG | NISAR_L1_RIFG_BETA_V1 |
| ROFF | NISAR_L1_ROFF_BETA_V1 |
| RSLC | NISAR_L1_RSLC_BETA_V1 |
To search for all NISAR data products, use the filter options on the left-hand panel, as shown in Figure 2. Set “Platforms” to NISAR and “Processing Level” to the desired product level. The results will update to display all NISAR product data types that fit the selected criteria.
Figure 2:Setting the platform filter to NISAR and the processing level to 2 and 3 will show analysis-ready NISAR data products.
2. Filter for desired products¶
After selecting a collection, use the available filters to refine the list of products. Individual data products are called “granules” in Earthdata Search.
To search for a specific geographic region, use the Spatial Search button. You can search with a polygon, rectangle, circle, or point by either by drawing on the map or specifying coordinates. You can also upload a ShapeFile, KML, GeoJSON, or GeoRSS file.
Figure 3:Search by drawing a region of interest or entering coordinates using the “Spatial” search filter. This example shows a rectangular search, but users can also search using a polygon, circle, point, or geospatial file.
To search for products in a specific date range, use the Temporal Search button. This filter searches for products between a start and end date, with the option to find products that occur on an annual basis by checking the “Use a recurring date range” button.
Figure 4:Search using a date range with the “Temporal” search filter.
Use the “Granule ID” filter to perform advanced searches, including wildcard matching and searches for multiple Granule IDs separated by commas. The question mark (?) wildcard matches a single character at the specified position, while the asterisk (*) wildcard matches any number of characters at the specified position. For example, searching for *_QP* will return quad-pol acquisitions. To review NISAR product naming conventions and elements, see Naming Convention Overview.
Figure 5:Filter using the Granule ID filter set to *_QP* to find all quad-pol products.
3. Download data¶
Log in to Earthdata Search using your Earthdata Login (EDL) account. To learn more about EDL, see Accessing Data Using EDL Accounts.
Individual granules can be downloaded directly from the Earthdata Search results. Select the download icon associated with the desired granule to save the file locally.
Figure 6:Log in with EDL credentials by clicking the “Log In” button (#1) on the upper right-hand side of the screen. Once logged in, click the download icon (#2), toggle to “Download Files”, and click the download icon next to the filename to download your desired granule directly.
For guidance on downloading multiple files in bulk, refer to the NASA Earthdata Cloud Cookbook.
For information on accessing data using the AWS CLI, see S3 Paths from Earthdata Search.