40 NASA datasets and APIs, each checked by hand on 2026-10-04. Every one says what it takes to get the data.
NASA ASF DAAC
Earthdata LoginWorks in browser
Map-projected L-band radar backscatter from the NASA-ISRO NISAR mission, the simplest NISAR product for spotting surface change such as flooding, crop growth, forest loss or burn scars. Released as a provisional (pre-validation) product, so treat values with care; a beta version and urgent-response products also exist in CMR.
CMR short name NISAR_L2_GCOV_PROVISIONAL_V1, concept ID C2854338529-ASF, GIBS layer NISAR_L2_Geocoded_Polarimetric_Covariance
NASA ASF DAAC
Earthdata LoginWorks in browser
Interferograms built from pairs of NISAR radar passes, showing centimeter-scale ground motion from earthquakes, subsidence, landslides or glacier flow. Provisional product; expect large HDF5 files and some InSAR background before using it.
CMR short name NISAR_L2_GUNW_PROVISIONAL_V1, concept ID C2854335566-ASF
NASA ASF DAAC / JPL OPERA
Earthdata LoginWorks in browser
Analysis-ready C-band radar backscatter from Sentinel-1 as Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs, validated and much easier to open than raw SAR. A good fallback or comparison layer for NISAR, with a longer archive.
CMR short name OPERA_L2_RTC-S1_V1, concept ID C2777436413-ASF, GIBS layer OPERA_L2_Radiometric_Terrain_Corrected_SAR_Sentinel-1
NASA PO.DAAC / JPL OPERA
Earthdata LoginWorks in browser
30 m maps of open and partial surface water derived from Landsat and Sentinel-2, useful for tracking wetland loss, flooding and reservoir change, and for ground-truthing radar water maps.
CMR short name OPERA_L3_DSWX-HLS_V1, concept ID C2617126679-POCLOUD, GIBS layer OPERA_L3_Dynamic_Surface_Water_Extent-HLS
NASA LP DAAC / JPL OPERA
Earthdata LoginWorks in browser
30 m alerts flagging where vegetation cover has dropped compared with a historical baseline, which picks up wildfire scars, clearing and storm damage. Pairs well with radar change maps for validation.
CMR short name OPERA_L3_DIST-ALERT-HLS_V1, concept ID C2746980408-LPCLOUD, GIBS layer OPERA_L3_DIST-ALERT-HLS_Color_Index
NASA FIRMS
Free API keyWorks in browser
Returns MODIS, VIIRS and Landsat fire detections as CSV for a bounding box and day range, including standard-processing archive sources (MODIS_SP, VIIRS_SNPP_SP, VIIRS_NOAA20_SP) as well as near-real-time feeds. The quickest way to get point detections for a fire calendar without handling swath files. Needs a free MAP_KEY.
endpoint https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/area/
NASA LP DAAC
Earthdata LoginWorks in browser
The Terra MODIS active-fire swath product, with fire masks, detection confidence and fire radiative power back to 2000. This is the long MODIS side of a MODIS-VIIRS harmonized record; the Aqua twin is MYD14.
CMR short name MOD14, concept ID C2271754179-LPCLOUD, GIBS layer MODIS_Terra_Thermal_Anomalies_All
NASA LP DAAC
Earthdata LoginWorks in browser
Suomi NPP VIIRS active-fire detections at 375 m, finer than MODIS and available since 2012. The overlap years with MODIS are where harmonization work happens.
CMR short name VNP14IMG, concept ID C2734202914-LPCLOUD, GIBS layer VIIRS_SNPP_Thermal_Anomalies_375m_All
NASA LP DAAC
Earthdata LoginWorks in browser
The same 375 m VIIRS fire algorithm run on NOAA-20, offset in orbit from Suomi NPP. Adding it increases how often each area is observed per day.
CMR short name VJ114IMG, concept ID C2734197957-LPCLOUD, GIBS layer VIIRS_NOAA20_Thermal_Anomalies_375m_All
NASA ESDIS
No loginWorks in browser
Ready-made map tiles for more than 1,000 NASA Earth layers (true color, fires, soil moisture, precipitation, night lights and more) served over WMTS with no login. The fastest way to put NASA Earth imagery on a web map or in a visualization.
GIBS layer MODIS_Terra_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor, endpoint https://gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov/wmts/epsg4326/best/1.0.0/WMTSCapabilities.xml
NASA NSIDC DAAC
Earthdata LoginWorks in browser
Daily global surface soil moisture at 9 km from the SMAP radiometer, available since 2015. Useful for judging field water stress and comparing seasons.
CMR short name SPL3SMP_E, concept ID C2938664763-NSIDC_CPRD, GIBS layer SMAP_L3_Passive_Enhanced_Day_Soil_Moisture
NASA LP DAAC
Earthdata LoginWorks in browser
NDVI and EVI greenness composites every 16 days at 250 m since 2000. A standard way to compare crop vigor across seasons and spot rotation effects.
CMR short name MOD13Q1, concept ID C1748066515-LPCLOUD, GIBS layer MODIS_Terra_L3_NDVI_16Day
NASA LP DAAC
Earthdata LoginWorks in browser
Landsat surface reflectance resampled to match Sentinel-2 on a common 30 m grid, so fields can be tracked every few days. The Sentinel-2 half is HLSS30; both come as Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs.
CMR short name HLSL30, concept ID C2021957657-LPCLOUD, GIBS layer HLS_L30_Nadir_BRDF_Adjusted_Reflectance
NASA GES DISC
Earthdata LoginWorks in browser
Daily global precipitation at about 10 km merged from the GPM satellite constellation and gauges, back to 2000. The Final run lags real time by a few months.
CMR short name GPM_3IMERGDF, concept ID C2723754864-GES_DISC
NASA LaRC POWER
No loginWorks in browser
Point and regional time series of temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, humidity and wind from satellite and model data, returned as JSON or CSV with no key. Ideal for a farm decision tool or a quick climate trend for any location.
endpoint https://power.larc.nasa.gov/api/temporal/daily/point
NASA GISS
No login
Monthly global and regional surface temperature anomalies since 1880, downloadable as small CSV tables. A clean starting series for trend and significance testing.
endpoint https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata_v4/GLB.Ts+dSST.csv
NASA PO.DAAC / JPL
Earthdata LoginWorks in browser
Monthly changes in total water storage (groundwater, ice, soil water) from the GRACE and GRACE-FO gravity missions since 2002, in a single NetCDF file. Shows long-term drying, ice loss and aquifer depletion.
CMR short name TELLUS_GRAC-GRFO_MASCON_CRI_GRID_RL06.3_V4, concept ID C3195527175-POCLOUD, GIBS layer GRACE_Tellus_Liquid_Water_Equivalent_Thickness_Mascon_CRI
NASA GES DISC / GMAO
Earthdata LoginWorks in browser
Monthly gridded reanalysis of near-surface temperature, humidity, wind and pressure since 1980. Gives a complete, gap-free record for trend analysis where observations are sparse.
CMR short name M2TMNXSLV, concept ID C1276812859-GES_DISC
NASA GES DISC
Earthdata Login
Browser tool that makes time series, maps, Hovmoller plots and correlations from thousands of NASA Earth variables without downloading files. Good for a first look at trends before writing code. Uses Earthdata Login.
endpoint https://giovanni.gsfc.nasa.gov/giovanni/
NASA LP DAAC
Earthdata LoginWorks in browser
About 30 m elevation for land between 60N and 56S from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Useful for finding terrain (craters, lava fields, canyons) that resembles lunar or Martian sites.
CMR short name SRTMGL1, concept ID C2763266360-LPCLOUD
NASA Solar System Treks (JPL)
No loginWorks in browser
Global LROC Wide Angle Camera image mosaic of the Moon served as standard WMTS tiles with open CORS, plus hundreds of other Moon Trek layers listed in the Trek API docs. A drop-in basemap for any lunar web app.
endpoint https://trek.nasa.gov/tiles/Moon/EQ/LRO_WAC_Mosaic_Global_303ppd_v02/1.0.0/WMTSCapabilities.xml
NASA Solar System Treks (JPL)
No loginWorks in browser
South polar tile layers from LRO: WAC percentage-based illumination (WAC_POLE_ILL_PCT_SOUTH_100M) and LOLA average Earth visibility (AVGVISIB_85S_060M_201608_EARTH_SP). Together they show where a lander gets sunlight for power and line of sight to Earth for communication.
endpoint https://trek.nasa.gov/tiles/Moon/SP/WAC_POLE_ILL_PCT_SOUTH_100M/1.0.0/WMTSCapabilities.xml
NASA PDS Geosciences Node (Washington University in St. Louis)
No loginWorks in browser
A REST API for finding PDS products by mission, instrument and product type; for example LOLA gridded elevation (GDRDEM) of the Moon. Returns product lists with download links to the PDS archive.
endpoint https://oderest.rsl.wustl.edu/live2/?query=products&target=moon&ihid=LRO&iid=LOLA&pt=GDRDEM&output=json
NASA JPL Solar System Dynamics
No login
Computes positions of the Sun, Earth, planets and spacecraft as seen from any place and time, including a point on the lunar surface. Returns azimuth and elevation directly, which is exactly what solar power and Earth-communication windows need.
endpoint https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api
NASA JPL NAIF
No login
The toolkit and data files (kernels) NASA missions use for geometry: where bodies and spacecraft are, which way they point, and lighting angles. More setup than Horizons, but runs offline and at scale.
endpoint https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/generic_kernels/
LROC Science Operations Center (ASU) for NASA LRO
No login
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera images, including featured close-ups of Apollo, Surveyor, Luna, Lunokhod and Ranger sites and recent spacecraft impact sites where hardware or its traces are visible. Strong material for stories about equipment left on the Moon.
endpoint https://lroc.im-ldi.com/images
NASA Solar System Treks (JPL)
No loginWorks in browser
Mars basemaps as WMTS tiles with open CORS, including the global 5 m CTX mosaic (CTX_beta01_uncontrolled_5m_Caltech) and MOLA color hillshade (Mars_MGS_MOLA_ClrShade_merge_global_463m). Stack them to plan a route and read terrain.
endpoint https://trek.nasa.gov/tiles/Mars/EQ/CTX_beta01_uncontrolled_5m_Caltech/1.0.0/WMTSCapabilities.xml
University of Arizona HiRISE team / NASA PDS
No login
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter images at roughly 25 to 50 cm per pixel, sharp enough to see boulders, rover tracks and landers. The PDS archive holds full-resolution RDR products and digital terrain models (DTM).
endpoint https://hirise-pds.lpl.arizona.edu/PDS/
NASA IPAC IRSA
No login
All-sky spectral images from SPHEREx, searchable through the spherex.obscore TAP table and the IRSA SIA service by position and time. Repeat visits of the same patch of sky are what reveal moving asteroids, comets and nearby brown dwarfs.
endpoint https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/TAP/sync
NASA JPL Solar System Dynamics
No login
Orbit elements, physical data and discovery details for any asteroid or comet as JSON. Use it to label moving objects, or to give a mission-design game real target bodies.
endpoint https://ssd-api.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.api
NASA OSDR (Ames)
No login
Public spaceflight biology studies, including GeneLab omics and ALSDA physiology data, on bone loss, muscle, heart, immune and radiation effects. The search API returns study metadata as JSON; a separate Biological Data API supports detailed metadata queries.
endpoint https://osdr.nasa.gov/osdr/data/search
NASA Johnson Space Center
No loginWorks in browser
Catalog of human and animal research from NASA missions, with study descriptions and measured variables. Some datasets are public, while privacy-protected astronaut data are available only through a formal data request.
endpoint https://nlsp.nasa.gov/explore/lsdahome
NASA CCMC (Goddard)
No loginWorks in browser
JSON records of solar flares, coronal mass ejections and solar energetic particle events, the space weather that drives astronaut radiation exposure. Queries are limited to 60-day windows.
endpoint https://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/DONKI-API/get/SEP
NASA Biological and Physical Sciences
No login
Archive of microgravity physical-science experiments from the ISS and earlier flights, with a Combustion Science research area that includes spacecraft fire safety studies. Investigations include descriptions, publications and data files.
endpoint https://psi.nasa.gov/physci/repo/search?q=&data_source=psi&data_type=investigation
NASA STI Program
No login
Search API over NASA technical reports, conference papers and journal articles, many with full-text PDFs. Over a thousand records match microgravity combustion, and it also covers mission design and spaceflight health.
endpoint https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/search
NASA
No loginWorks in browser
Search API over NASA's public photos, videos and audio, with no key and open CORS. Good for mission artwork, historical hardware photos and game assets.
endpoint https://images-api.nasa.gov/search
NASA Goddard SVS
No login
Search and page APIs for thousands of NASA science visualizations, with links to frames, movies and data-driven animations of sea ice, temperature, carbon and more. A rich source of visuals to pair with sound.
endpoint https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/api/search/
U.S. Earth Information Center
No loginWorks in browser
Earth.gov hosts the Earth Information Center, which brings together federal Earth science data and stories on climate, water, fire, sea level and more. Use it to pick the themes and visuals a sonification should follow.
endpoint https://earth.gov/
NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive (Goddard)
No login
Reference entries for spacecraft and experiments, with launch dates, mission outcomes and pages such as the Apollo landing-site list. A reliable fact source for stories about hardware left on the Moon and Mars.
endpoint https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/
NASA (GitHub nasa/NASA-3D-Resources)
No loginWorks in browser
Free 3D models of NASA spacecraft, landers, rovers and asteroids, mostly as STL and GLB files. Ready-made assets for games, trainers and storytelling pages.
endpoint https://api.github.com/repos/nasa/NASA-3D-Resources/contents/3D%20Models