Federated Collection Discovery

This project makes it possible to search across multiple geospatial metadata catalogs, such as STAC and NASA CMR, based on provided search parameters like bounding box (bbox), datetime, and free-text criteria to return collection-level metadata and code hints for accessing items.

Table of Contents

• Prerequisites
• Setup Using Docker
• Setup Using uv
• API Endpoints
• Example API usage

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9 (or higher)
• Node.js and yarn (for the React frontend)
• Docker and Docker Compose

Setup Using Docker

Ensure Docker and Docker Compose are installed. Follow the steps below to build and start the containers:

Build and start the services:

docker compose up --build

This will use the FEDERATED_STAC_API_URLS and FEDERATED_CMR_URLS environment variables defined in docker-compose.yaml to search across NASA's MAAP STAC API and VEDA STAC API, and ESA's STAC API

Stop the services:

docker compose down

Once the Docker containers are running, you can access the application at the same endpoints:

• Backend (FastAPI): http://localhost:8000
• Frontend (React): http://localhost:3000

Setup Using uv

1. Install uv

Ensure you have uv installed. If not, install it:

# install uv

# unix
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# or on windows
powershell -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

2. Install Dependencies

Navigate to the src/server directory and install the dependencies using uv:

cd src/server
uv sync --all-extras

3. Run the Application

Navigate to the src/server directory, activate your virtual environment, and run the FastAPI server using Uvicorn:

cd src/server
uv run uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --reload

Navigate to the src/client directory and start the React development server:

cd src/client
npm install  # or `yarn install`
npm start    # or `yarn start`

Access the application:

• Backend (FastAPI): http://localhost:8000
• Frontend (React): http://localhost:3000

API Endpoints

/search

Initiates a search for collections that match the specified criteria.

• Method: GET
• Parameters:
  • bbox (query parameter, comma separated list of floats)
  • datetime (query parameter, datetime range separated by /, e.g. 2024-06-01T00:00:00Z/2024-07-12T12:00:00Z)
  • q (query parameter, str)
• Response:
  • A JSON object containing an array of results.

Example Requests:

1. Look for collections with 'hls' in one of the text fields and data from 2020:

   curl -X GET \
     "http://localhost:8000/search?` \
     `bbox=-180.0,-90.0,180.0,90.0&` \
     `datetime=2020-01-01T00:00:00Z/2020-12-31T23:59:59Z&` \
     `q=hls" | jq

2. Look for collections with 'elevation' in one of the text fields that intersects a part of North America:

   curl -X GET \
     "http://localhost:8000/search?` \
     `bbox=-120,40,-110,50&` \
     `q=elevation" | jq

The arguments are consistent with the STAC API Item Search spec.

Example API usage

The federated collection discovery API allows you to run a search against collection-level metadata in multiple APIs. You can specify a bbox to filter collections by spatial extent, datetime for filtering by temporal extent, and q for applying free-text search filters.

Note

The example below will return collections that include the terms 'DEM' or 'elevation' but not collections that include 'biomass'.

import httpx
import pandas as pd

# this is the url for the API if you are running it in the docker network
API_URL = "http://localhost:8000"

search_request = httpx.get(
    f"{API_URL}/search",
    params={
        "q": "elevation OR DEM -biomass"
    },
    timeout=20,
)
search_request.raise_for_status()
search_results = search_request.json()

	id	catalog_url	title	spatial_extent	temporal_extent	short_name	description	keywords	hint
0	ABoVE_UAVSAR_PALSAR	https://stac.maap-project.org/	Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar Polarimetric SAR	[[-166.788382, 69.708769, -110.947561, 59.729364]]	[[2017-06-13T22:03:35Z, 2017-06-22T19:25:35Z]]	None	The Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) is a NASA Terrestrial Ecology Program field campaign conducted from June through September 2017 over Alaska and Western Canada. ABoVE is a large-scale study of environmental change and to assess the vulnerability and resilience of Arctic and boreal ecosystems and provide scientific bases for societal response decision making. ABoVE utilized the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) Polarimetric SAR (PALSAR) instrument to provide image transects to survey the land surface, hydrological systems and vegetation. SAR products in this collection include the Digital Elevation Model (DEM), the local incidence angle, the terrain slope product, ground projected complex cross products, the compressed stokes matrix, pauli decompositions, multi-look cross products, and scene annotation files.	[]	None
1	SRTMGL1_COD	https://stac.maap-project.org/	NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Global 1	[[-180.0, -56.0, 180.0, 60.0]]	[[2000-02-11T00:00:00Z, 2000-02-21T23:59:59.999000Z]]	None	NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) datasets result from a collaborative effort by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA - previously known as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, or NIMA), as well as the participation of the German and Italian space agencies. The purpose of SRTM was to generate a near-global digital elevation model (DEM) of the Earth using radar interferometry. SRTM was a primary component of the payload on the Space Shuttle Endeavour during its STS-99 mission. Endeavour launched February 11, 2000 and flew for 11 days.	[SRTM]	None
2	COP-DEM	https://catalogue.dataspace.copernicus.eu/stac	COP-DEM	[[-180.0, -90.0, 180.0, 90.0]]	[[2010-12-12T00:00:00Z, None]]	None	The Copernicus DEM is a Digital Surface Model (DSM) that represents the surface of the Earth including buildings, infrastructure and vegetation. Data were acquired through the TanDEM-X mission between 2011 and 2015 [https://spacedata.copernicus.eu/collections/copernicus-digital-elevation-model].	[]	None

# search with a bounding box filter for Ecuador
# for collections with 'biomass' in the metadata
# but not collections with 'GEDI'
search_request = httpx.get(
    f"{API_URL}/search",
    params={
        "bbox": "-84.837,-5.433,-72.662,2.301",
        "q": "biomass -GEDI",
    },
    timeout=20,
)
search_request.raise_for_status()
search_results = search_request.json()

	id	catalog_url	title	spatial_extent	temporal_extent	short_name	description	keywords	hint
0	ESACCI_Biomass_L4_AGB_V4_100m	https://stac.maap-project.org/	ESA CCI Above-Ground Biomass Product Level 4 Version 4	[[-180.0, -90.0, 180.0, 90.0]]	[[2017-01-01T00:00:00Z, 2020-12-31T23:59:59.999000Z]]	None	This dataset comprises estimates of forest above-ground biomass for the years 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, version 4. They are derived from a combination of Earth observation data, depending on the year, from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, Envisat’s ASAR instrument and JAXA’s Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS-1 and ALOS-2), along with additional information from Earth observation sources. The data has been produced as part of the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) programme by the Biomass CCI team.	[ESA, CCI, Biomass]	None

By default, the API will search a pre-defined list of APIs that are set at application setup but you can provide a comma-separated list of STAC API URLs (and/or CMR API URLs) and federated collection discovery API will search those instead.

# search with a free-text filter but specify a different
# set of STAC API URLs
stac_api_urls = [
    "https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/stac/LPCLOUD",
    "https://earth-search.aws.element84.com/v1"
]
search_request = httpx.get(
    f"{API_URL}/search",
    params={
        "stac_api_urls": ",".join(stac_api_urls),
        "q": "HLS disturbance"
    },
    timeout=20,
)
search_request.raise_for_status()
search_results = search_request.json()

	id	catalog_url	title	spatial_extent	temporal_extent	short_name	description	keywords	hint
0	OPERA_L3_DIST-ALERT-HLS_V1_1	https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/stac/LPCLOUD	OPERA Land Surface Disturbance Alert from Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 product (Version 1)	[[-180, -90, 180, 90]]	[[2022-01-01T00:00:00Z, None]]	None	The Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA) Land Surface Disturbance Alert from Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS) product Version 1 maps vegetation disturbance alerts that are derived from data collected by Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B Multi-Spectral Instrument (MSI). A vegetation disturbance alert is detected at 30 meter (m) spatial resolution when there is an indicated decrease in vegetation cover within an HLS pixel. The Level-3 data product also provides additional information about more general disturbance trends and auxiliary generic disturbance information as determined from the variations of the reflectance through the HLS scenes. HLS data represent the highest temporal frequency data available at medium spatial resolution. The combined observations will provide greater sensitivity to land changes, whether of large magnitude/short duration or small magnitude/long duration.\r\n The OPERA_L3_DIST-ALERT-HLS (or DIST-ALERT) data product is provided in Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) format, and each layer is distributed as a separate file. There are 19 layers contained within the DIST-ALERT product. The layers for both vegetation and generic disturbance include disturbance status, loss or anomaly, maximum loss anomaly, disturbance confidence layer, date of disturbance, count of observations with loss anomalies, days of ongoing anomalies, and day of last disturbance detection. Additional layers are vegetation cover percent, historical percent vegetation cover, and data mask. See the Product Specification Document for a more detailed description of the individual layers provided in the DIST-ALERT product.\r\n	[]	None
1	OPERA_L3_DIST-ANN-HLS_V1_1	https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/stac/LPCLOUD	OPERA Land Surface Disturbance Annual from Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 product (Version 1)	[[-180, -90, 180, 90]]	[[2022-01-01T00:00:00Z, None]]	None	The Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA) Land Surface Disturbance Annual from Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS) product Version 1 summarizes the DIST-ALERT data product into an annual vegetation disturbance data product. Vegetation disturbance is mapped when there is an indicated decrease in vegetation cover within an HLS Version 2 pixel. The product also provides auxiliary generic disturbance information as determined from the variations of the reflectance through the DIST-ALERT scenes to provide information about more general disturbance trends. The DIST-ANN product tracks changes at the annual scale, aggregating changes identified in the DIST-ALERT product. Only confirmed disturbances from the associated year are reported together with the date of initial disturbance. As confirmed disturbances are determined using subsequent cloud-free observations to determine if the loss detections persist, the required number of HLS scenes depends on visibility of the target. Due to this dependency, summarizing the DIST-ALERT in the DIST-ANN product will have some latency contingent on the algorithmic calibration and is detailed in the Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD).\r\nThe OPERA_L3_DIST-ANN-HLS (or DIST-ANN) data product is provided in Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) format, and each layer is distributed as a separate COG. There are 21 layers contained within the DIST-ANN product: vegetation disturbance status, historical vegetation cover indicator, maximum vegetation cover indicator, maximum vegetation anomaly value, vegetation disturbance confidence layer, date of initial vegetation disturbance, number of detected vegetation loss anomalies, vegetation disturbance duration, date of last observation assessed for vegetation disturbance, and several generic disturbance layers. Each product layer is gridded to the same resolution and tiling system as HLS V2: 30 meter (m) and Military Grid Reference System (MGRS). See the Product Specification Document (PSD) for a more detailed description of the individual layers provided in the DIST-ANN product. \r\n	[]	None

Tip

Try it yourself by firing up the docker network and running example_search.ipynb!