STAC catalogs for remote sensing — a curated index

STAC catalogs for remote sensing — curated index¶

Organized by category. For each catalog: endpoint (when stable), what’s in it, auth, and notes relevant to scientific ML / methane / ocean / atmospheric work. The truly comprehensive list is at stacindex.org (machine-readable mirror: opengeos/stac-index-catalogs) — this document is the high-signal subset.

Legend: 🟢 public search · 🔑 auth required for search · 🌐 public assets · 🔒 auth for assets · 💰 commercial · 🧪 mostly Zarr/NetCDF (not COGs) · 🛰️ optical · 📡 SAR · 🌫️ atmosphere · 🌊 ocean · 🌈 hyperspectral

1. Major aggregator catalogs¶

These are the catalogs that index data from many missions in one place. If you don’t know where to start, start here.

Microsoft Planetary Computer¶

• STAC API: https://planetarycomputer.microsoft.com/api/stac/v1 🟢 🔒

• What’s in it: ~130+ collections. Sentinel-1/2/3/5P, Landsat 4–9, MODIS, NAIP, HLS, Copernicus DEM, ALOS PALSAR, ESA WorldCover, ERA5, GOES, Daymet, GBIF, GPM IMERG, JRC Global Surface Water, NASA-ISRO NISAR (planned). Methane-relevant: Sentinel-5P (L2 + L3), GOES CMI for plume context.

• Auth: Public search; SAS-tokened Azure Blob for asset reads (planetary-computer.sign() or obstore PlanetaryComputerCredentialProvider).

• Notes: The single most production-ready STAC API. Most ARCO Zarr collections (ERA5, Daymet) also exposed alongside COGs.

Element 84 Earth Search¶

• STAC API: https://earth-search.aws.element84.com/v1 🟢 🌐

• What’s in it: Sentinel-2 L2A (COG), Sentinel-2 L1C, Sentinel-1 GRD, Landsat Collection 2 L2, NAIP, Copernicus DEM (GLO-30, GLO-90).

• Auth: None; assets are public S3 (sentinel-cogs, usgs-landsat) in us-west-2.

• Notes: Lightest-weight option for Sentinel-2 COGs. No SAS tokens, no OAuth, no fuss.

USGS Landsatlook¶

• STAC API: https://landsatlook.usgs.gov/stac-server 🟢 🌐

• What’s in it: Landsat Collection 2 Level-1 and Level-2 (surface reflectance, surface temperature), Landsat ARD.

• Auth: Public search; assets are in requester-pays S3 (usgs-landsat) — you pay egress unless in us-west-2.

• Notes: Authoritative source for Landsat. Identical collections also mirrored on PC and Earth Search.

Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem (CDSE)¶

• STAC API: https://stac.dataspace.copernicus.eu/v1 🟢 🔒

• What’s in it: All Sentinel missions (S1, S2, S3, S5P, S6), Copernicus Contributing Missions (PRISMA among others), Copernicus DEM, Global Land Cover.

• Auth: Public STAC search; CDSE-issued S3 keys for direct object access via eodata.dataspace.copernicus.eu.

• Notes: EU-hosted alternative to PC for Sentinel data. Separate sh.dataspace.copernicus.eu/catalog/v1 (Sentinel Hub Catalog) requires OAuth and is the gateway to the Process API.

NASA VEDA¶

• STAC API: https://openveda.cloud/api/stac (prod), https://staging.openveda.cloud/api/stac (staging) 🟢 🌐

• What’s in it: Curated ARCO datasets for NASA science storytelling — heat, fire, sea level, snow, urban heat islands, COVID-19 environmental indicators, plus most US Greenhouse Gas Center datasets.

• Auth: Public.

• Notes: Heavy on derived/L3/L4 products, including ML-ready Zarr stores. Backed by eoAPI + pgstac.

NASA US Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Center¶

• STAC API: Built on VEDA infrastructure (earth.gov/ghgcenter portal) 🟢 🌐

• What’s in it: EPA GHG Inventory, NIST urban methane, NOAA flask network, MethaneAIR retrievals, EMIT methane plume catalog, OCO-2/3 XCO₂, CarbonTracker, GOSAT. Especially relevant for plumax.

• Auth: Public.

• Notes: Datasets are FAIR + cloud-optimized; this is the cleanest entry point for cross-sensor GHG inversions.

2. NASA CMR-STAC (per-DAAC catalogs)¶

NASA’s CMR exposes STAC per-provider. The root is https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/stac/ and you pick a provider sub-catalog. All require Earthdata Login for asset access; search is public.

Auth pattern across all of these: Earthdata Login → /s3credentials endpoint per-DAAC → temporary STS keys → obstore S3Store in us-west-2. Use the obstore.auth.earthdata.NasaEarthdataCredentialProvider with the per-DAAC credentials URL.

3. ESA / European catalogs¶

DLR EOC Geoservice (Germany)¶

• STAC API: https://geoservice.dlr.de/eoc/ogc/stac/v1 🟢 🔒

• Collections of note: ENMAP_HSI_L2A (CEOS-ARD hyperspectral) 🌈, ENMAP_HSI_L1B, ENMAP_HSI_L1C, ENMAP_HSI_L0_QL. Also TanDEM-X DEM, Sentinel-1 floodmasks (Data4Human), German forest structure, SoilSuite.

• Auth: Public search; DLR UMS (HTTP Basic) for downloads from download.geoservice.dlr.de.

S5P-PAL (Sentinel-5P Products Algorithm Laboratory)¶

• STAC browser: https://data-portal.s5p-pal.com/ 🟢 🌐

• What’s in it: Reprocessed Sentinel-5P L2 products (NO₂, CH₄, CO, O₃, HCHO, SO₂, AOT, cloud), including the PAL_S5P_L2__CH4____HiR high-resolution methane reprocessing. Directly relevant for plumax.

• Auth: Public.

• Notes: Algorithm reprocessing pipeline — better-quality CH₄ retrievals than operational stream. Endpoint is the canonical scientific archive.

ASI (Italian Space Agency) — PRISMA¶

• STAC catalog: static catalog within the ASI Open Data portal; current path: https://prisma.asi.it/missionselect/

• What’s in it: PRISMA L1/L2B/L2C/L2D hyperspectral (VNIR + SWIR, 240 bands) 🌈.

• Auth: Registration required.

• Notes: Complement to EnMAP. Often used for methane/CO₂ plume retrievals in the literature.

EUMETSAT Data Store¶

• STAC API: https://api.eumetsat.int/data/browse/1.0.0/ (custom dialect, partially STAC-compliant) 🔑 🔒

• What’s in it: Meteosat (MSG, MTG), Metop, Sentinel-3 SLSTR/OLCI/SRAL marine, Jason-CS — 🌊 ocean and 🌫️ atmospheric.

• Auth: EUMETSAT account + OAuth.

Swiss Data Cube¶

• STAC API: https://explorer.swissdatacube.org/stac 🟢 🌐

• What’s in it: Sentinel-1/2, Landsat 5–9 over Switzerland, plus derived products.

• Auth: Public.

4. Regional Open Data Cubes¶

Digital Earth Africa¶

• STAC API: https://explorer.digitalearth.africa/stac 🟢 🌐

• What’s in it: Sentinel-1/2, Landsat 5–9, geomedian composites, water observations, cropland extent over Africa.

• Auth: Public; assets in s3://deafrica-* buckets (us-west-2 and af-south-1).

Digital Earth Australia¶

• STAC API: https://explorer.dea.ga.gov.au/stac 🟢 🌐

• What’s in it: Sentinel-1/2, Landsat 5–9 over Australia, geomedian, water observations, intertidal.

• Auth: Public.

Digital Earth Pacific¶

• STAC API: https://stac.staging.digitalearthpacific.io 🟢 🌐

• What’s in it: Pacific-island regional products, Sentinel-2 over Pacific SIDS.

Brazil Data Cube (INPE)¶

• STAC API: https://data.inpe.br/bdc/stac/v1/ 🟢 🌐

• What’s in it: CBERS-4/4A, Landsat over Brazil, Amazon-focused derived products, time-series LCCS land cover.

• Auth: Public.

Sentinel Asia / JAXA Earth-graphy¶

• Various per-mission catalogs; JAXA exposes ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 and GCOM-W/AMSR-2 through different gateways, increasingly STAC-compliant.

5. Open commercial data (free tiers)¶

Maxar Open Data Program¶

• STAC catalog (static): https://maxar-opendata.s3.amazonaws.com/events/catalog.json 🟢 🌐

• What’s in it: Sub-meter optical (WorldView-1/2/3, GeoEye-1) over natural disasters and humanitarian events.

• Auth: Public S3.

Capella Space Open SAR Data¶

• STAC catalog (static): https://capella-open-data.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/stac/catalog.json 🟢 🌐 📡

• What’s in it: ~100+ X-band SAR scenes (Spotlight/Stripmap/Sliding Spotlight), SLC + GEO + GEC + SICD.

Umbra Open SAR Data¶

• STAC catalog (static): https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/umbra-open-data-catalog/stac/catalog.json 🟢 🌐 📡

• What’s in it: Sub-meter X-band SAR, GEC + SICD, expanding archive.

Planet Open Data (limited)¶

• Planet’s open datasets (e.g. wildfire response imagery) are typically distributed as static STAC catalogs from S3, advertised per-release on planet.com/disasterdata/.

NICFI Satellite Data Program (Planet basemaps)¶

• Norway’s International Climate & Forests Initiative provides Planet monthly tropical basemaps free for non-commercial use; available via Planet’s STAC API with NICFI account.

6. Commercial STAC APIs (paid / tasking)¶

These require a paid account and an access token. All are STAC-compliant for search.

7. Atmospheric / Greenhouse Gas catalogs (high relevance for plumax)¶

In addition to S5P-PAL, GHG Center, EMIT (LPCLOUD), and Sentinel-5P on PC, the methane-specific catalogs to know:

Carbon Mapper Data Portal¶

• STAC catalog: https://api.carbonmapper.org/ (custom STAC dialect) 🔑 🔒

• What’s in it: Methane and CO₂ plume detections from GAO/AVIRIS-NG airborne campaigns + Tanager satellite mission, with retrieved enhancements and source attribution. Directly competitive with EMIT for plume work.

• Auth: Free account + API key.

MethaneSAT (EDF)¶

• Data release through EDF / Google Earth Engine; STAC distribution in progress as of early 2026. Watch methanesat.org/data.

GHGSat¶

• Commercial point-source CH₄ detections; STAC-style API to paying customers; some plume aggregates published openly.

IMEO MARS (UNEP International Methane Emissions Observatory)¶

• The Methane Alert and Response System publishes notifications and (selectively) plume imagery via the UNEP IMEO portal. STAC publication in progress.

• Your work on the MARS satellite constellation database is downstream of this.

TROPOMI archives (additional to S5P-PAL)¶

• KNMI: https://maps.s5p-pal.com/ (visualization + STAC)

• ESA Sentinel-5P PRE-OPS: operational catalog under CDSE.

8. Ocean catalogs (high relevance for somax)¶

PO.DAAC (NASA — see CMR-STAC POCLOUD above)¶

• SWOT L2/L3 (SSH, KaRIn), MUR SST L4 (1km daily blended), GHRSST, MEaSUREs altimetry, AVHRR Pathfinder, ASCAT scatterometer winds, OSCAR currents.

• 🌊 The single most important catalog for ocean modeling/DA work.

Copernicus Marine Service (CMEMS)¶

• STAC: partial; primary access is via the CMEMS toolbox + copernicusmarine Python library. STAC endpoint is rolling out.

• What’s in it: Global Ocean Reanalysis (GLORYS), Mediterranean / Black Sea / Baltic regional products, OSTIA SST, in-situ thermosalinograph, biogeochemistry.

NOAA Open Data Dissemination (NODD)¶

• Multiple STAC catalogs per dataset on AWS Open Data, including GOES-16/17/18 ABI L2 (atmosphere + ocean), HRRR, NEXRAD, NWM, OISST.

• Static catalogs at noaa-* S3 buckets.

Pangeo Forge / Pangeo Datastore STAC¶

• Static catalog: pangeo-data/pangeo-datastore-stac on GitHub 🧪

• What’s in it: Cloud-optimized Zarr versions of CMIP6, ERA5, ECCO, LLC4320, MEaSUREs, satellite ocean color. Most relevant Zarr-STAC bridge for ocean models.

9. Climate / reanalysis (mostly Zarr-backed STAC)¶

• ERA5 — Via PC (era5-pds collection) and Pangeo Forge. Hourly atmospheric reanalysis 1940–present.

• MERRA-2 — Via CMR-STAC GES_DISC.

• CMIP6 — Pangeo CMIP6 cloud archive cataloged in pangeo-datastore-stac.

• Daymet — North America daily climate; via PC.

• CHIRPS — Rainfall climatology; via various community STAC mirrors.

• GPM IMERG — Precipitation; via PC and CMR-STAC GES_DISC.

10. Specialty / scientific catalogs¶

CEDA Archive (UK Centre for Environmental Data Analysis)¶

• STAC API: https://api.stac.ceda.ac.uk/ 🟢 🔒

• What’s in it: ~20 PB of atmospheric and EO data — aircraft campaigns, climate model output, satellite L1/L2, weather station data. NetCDF-heavy 🧪.

Radiant MLHub (ML-ready labeled datasets)¶

• STAC API: https://api.radiant.earth/mlhub/v1 🔑 🔒

• What’s in it: Labeled training datasets (crop type, building footprints, flood, land cover) co-located with imagery, all STAC-compliant with the label extension.

• Auth: Free API key.

• Notes: Mostly absorbed into Source Cooperative as of 2024 — check there for newer releases.

Source Cooperative (Radiant Earth)¶

• Browser: https://source.coop/ 🟢 🌐

• Many static STAC catalogs hosted here (e.g. Microsoft Building Footprints, Overture Maps, Speckle SAR datasets, several open methane datasets). Not one unified API but a strong directory of static catalogs.

OpenAerialMap¶

• STAC API: https://api.openaerialmap.org/ 🟢 🌐

• Citizen-contributed drone and aerial imagery, often disaster-response.

LINZ Data Service (New Zealand)¶

• STAC API: https://nz-imagery.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/catalog.json and others. NZ aerial imagery, hydrography, elevation.

Buildings on Cloud (Microsoft / Google)¶

• Static STAC catalogs for the Microsoft Buildings and Google Open Buildings datasets, hosted on Source Cooperative.

CIESIN STAC¶

• Static catalog: https://ciesin.github.io/sci-apps-stac/stac/catalog.json 🟢 🌐

• Population, hazards, GRID3 demographics.

Pleiades Archive Open Data — IGN France¶

• Selected open Pleiades scenes over France, static STAC.

11. STAC bridges to non-STAC archives¶

These aren’t STAC catalogs proper but let you query non-STAC archives with STAC tools:

• eodag — Python framework that wraps ~30 EO providers (USGS M2M, PEPS, Theia, ASF, Sobloo, Creodias, etc.) behind a unified STAC-style client.

• stactools — Many packages convert non-STAC catalogs into static STAC on-the-fly: stactools-landsat, stactools-sentinel2, stactools-modis, stactools-gpm-imerg, etc.

• pangeo-forge-recipes — Build ARCO Zarr from NetCDF archives, with STAC publication as part of the recipe.

• earthaccess — NASA CMR client; complement to CMR-STAC. Use earthaccess for auth+granules, CMR-STAC for catalog queries.

12. Tooling to discover / list all of them¶

• stacindex.org — Web UI + JSON dump of every registered catalog/API in the ecosystem. Mirror: opengeos/stac-index-catalogs.

• stac-browser — Web frontend (radiantearth/stac-browser) that points at any STAC endpoint. Public deployments at https://radiantearth.github.io/stac-browser/ and many provider-specific instances.

• pystac-client / rustac — Programmatic clients. For a quick “what collections does this API expose?”, await rustac.collections("...") or pystac_client.Client.open(url).get_collections().

Cheat-sheet: which catalog for which task¶

A few realistic caveats¶

• “STAC-compliant” is a spectrum. Planet’s Data API and Maxar’s eAPI are STAC-flavored but have provider-specific extensions; PySTAC-Client and rustac will work but you may hit edge cases on filtering/pagination.

• Static vs. dynamic. Many of the open commercial datasets (Maxar Open Data, Capella Open, Umbra Open) are static STAC catalogs — a tree of JSON files on S3. rustac handles these via rustac.read("...catalog.json"), but you can’t do bbox/datetime queries server-side; you crawl the tree or rebuild it as geoparquet first.

• Zarr/NetCDF catalogs need different array readers. STAC catalogs that point at Zarr stores (Pangeo, VEDA, parts of PC) don’t yield COGs — you read them with xarray.open_dataset(..., engine="zarr"), not rioxarray.

• The methane / atmospheric ecosystem is moving fast. MethaneSAT (publicly released late-2024), Tanager-1 (Carbon Mapper), and Sentinel-5 (operational successor to S5P, post-2025 launches) are reshaping what’s catalogued. Re-check the CarbonMapper and GHG Center endpoints quarterly.

• Don’t confuse Sentinel Hub Catalog with CDSE STAC. Same parent (CDSE) but different APIs, different auth, and different intended use. STAC v1 endpoint = catalog browsing; Sentinel Hub = on-the-fly processing.