earthaccess is an open source Python library to search, download, and stream NASA EO data. his notebook demonstrates how to search and download NISAR GCOV data with earthaccess
Overview¶
1. Prerequisites¶
| Prerequisite | Importance | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The software environment for this cookbook must be installed | Necessary |
Rough Notebook Time Estimate: 3 minutes
2. Search for GCOV data with earthaccess¶
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login()
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name='NISAR_L2_GCOV_BETA_V1',
bounding_box=(-10, 20, 10, 50),
temporal=("2025-11", "2025-12"),
# count=10 # (optional) limit the number of results
)
print(f"Found {len(results)} GCOV products:")
resultsFound 69 GCOV products:
3. (Option 1) Download the data to a specified directory¶
from pathlib import Path
data_dir = Path.home() / "GCOV_data_earthaccess_example"
files = earthaccess.download(results[0], data_dir)Loading...
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4. (Option 2) Stream the data over HTTPS¶
%%time
import earthaccess
import xarray as xr
https_links = results[0].data_links(access='external')
fsspec_config = {
'cache_type': 'background',
'block_size': 16*1024*1024, # 16 MB
}
fs = earthaccess.get_fsspec_https_session()
ds = xr.open_datatree(
fs.open(https_links[0], **fsspec_config),
engine='h5netcdf',
decode_timedelta=False,
phony_dims="access"
)
dsCPU times: user 2.11 s, sys: 306 ms, total: 2.42 s
Wall time: 7.61 s
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5. (Option 3) Stream the data from S3 and load with xarray¶
%%time
import earthaccess
import xarray as xr
s3_links = results[0].data_links(access='direct')
fsspec_config = {
'cache_type': 'background',
'block_size': 16*1024*1024, # 16 MB
}
# The endpoint must be set to the NISAR-specific endpoint
endpoint = 'https://nisar.asf.earthdatacloud.nasa.gov/s3credentials'
fs = earthaccess.get_s3_filesystem(endpoint=endpoint)
ds = xr.open_datatree(
fs.open(s3_links[0], **fsspec_config),
engine='h5netcdf',
decode_timedelta=False,
phony_dims="access"
)
dsCPU times: user 1.22 s, sys: 283 ms, total: 1.5 s
Wall time: 2.8 s
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5. Summary¶
You now have the tools and knowledge that you need to search, download, and stream data using the earthaccess Python package.
6. Resources and references¶
Author: Alex Lewandowski
Streaming examples copied directly from the NISAR Data User Guide