Earthdata Search: Combining New Services and Technologies for Earth Science Data Discovery, Visualization, and Access

Abstract:

A host of new services are revolutionizing discovery, visualization, and access of NASA's Earth science data holdings. At the same time, web browsers have become far more capable and open source libraries have grown to take advantage of these capabilities. Earthdata Search is a web application which combines modern browser features with the latest Earthdata services from NASA to produce a cutting-edge search and access client with features far beyond what was possible only a couple of years ago. Earthdata Search provides data discovery through the Common Metadata Repository (CMR), which provides a high-speed REST API for searching across hundreds of millions of data granules using temporal, spatial, and other constraints. It produces data visualizations by combining CMR data with Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) image tiles. Earthdata Search renders its visualizations using custom plugins built on Leaflet.js, a lightweight mobile-friendly open source web mapping library. The client further features an SVG-based interactive timeline view of search results. For data access, Earthdata Search provides easy temporal and spatial subsetting as well as format conversion by making use of OPeNDAP. While the client hopes to drive adoption of these services and standards, it provides fallback behavior for working with data that has not yet adopted them. This allows the client to remain on the cutting-edge of service offerings while still boasting a catalog containing thousands of data collections. In this session, we will walk through Earthdata Search and explain how it incorporates these new technologies and service offerings.