NASA data API

https://data.nasa.gov/developer

by bambax • 11 years ago

351 40 11 years ago

data.nasa.gov

jmadsen• 11 years ago

Nice! Endless learning tools & games to come out of this one

This is great. I have tried to access NASA's open data before. It was quite scattered and non-intuitive. Even the USGS also has a nice data API as well. BLS and DOE not so much.

SpaceInvader• 11 years ago

This is fantastic news! I was waiting for that to happen :)

pierrec• 11 years ago

Is there a compilation of applications and experiments using each API?

The classical example of cool stuff you can do with this kind of API is the world wind map:

http://earth.nullschool.net/

chrisvxd• 11 years ago

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing.

mccalljt• 11 years ago

That explains why I was almost getting knocked off my feet during my walk home in Chicago today. Very cool

natch• 11 years ago

And look at that, it's https. Excellent. (reference to the poorly-thought-out rant at https://github.com/WhiteHouse/https/issues/107)

skram• 11 years ago

open.whitehouse.gov is HTTPS :)

tylermac1• 11 years ago

At first glance I thought this read "NSA data API".

Knew it was too good to be true. Still very cool nonetheless. The Landsat 8 data is very neat specifically.

a3n• 11 years ago

At first glance I thought this read "NSA data API".

They already have a lot of contractors on it, thanks anyway.

hrayr3• 11 years ago

At first glance I thought this read "NSA data API". If they gobble everything up on the internet, then I suppose their data API is the internet.

justinph• 11 years ago

Wow, predict the sky looks pretty neat: http://predictthesky.org/

Too bad it doesn't seem to actually work.

lordbusiness• 11 years ago

I had an aw shucks moment too! api.predictthesky.org doesn't resolve, and there is nothing on the API GitHub repo. The landing page says 2013 so I'm wondering if this got abandoned. Would have been really neat to play with.

chris-metcalf2• 11 years ago

Chris Metcalf here, Developer Evangelist from Socrata (http://dev.socrata.com), the company that provides the platform that hosts the catalog and some of the open data APIs they're providing. I'm glad to answer whatever questions I can here.

IndianAstronaut2• 11 years ago

Are you working with the new chief Data Scientist and his team to set this up?

Are the tools you're developing just for US government data or are you also branching out into state and international governments?

chris-metcalf2• 11 years ago

We worked with a team from across NASA to build it, including the Ames Research Center and other groups.

At Socrata we work with all levels of governments, including cities, states, federal agencies, and even international governments around the world: http://www.socrata.com/customer-stories/

spiritplumber2• 11 years ago

Is it okay to use any of this in KSP to increase its realism?

hsparikh• 11 years ago

This is wonderful. We will be using/hosting some of these datasets on Tuva (tuvalabs.com) for educators and learners in K-12, Higher-Ed, and beyond.

dluan3• 11 years ago

So excited for this. If anyone wants to start experimenting with this data set in cool and open ways, I will personally fund your small micro experiments.

NASA's APOD is so awesome and that's just a picture, imagine all the potential fantastic content that's now available and what you could do with it.

kiloreux• 11 years ago

That would be great how can i contact you ?

dluan3• 11 years ago

I will put up a call for proposals on Experiment.com (I am the founder), don't expect me to commit a lot, but between friends and colleagues, I'm thinking we could review many proposals and get a few exciting projects off the ground. This is a great excuse for me to get around to doing this, and doing it in a transparent and democratic way.

edit - here's the link for more info: http://blog.experiment.com/post/117058351892/rfp-nasa-open-d...

radd9er• 11 years ago

Id also take you up on this. I have been doing data visualization using webgl, and developing a library. I'd love to see what i can make with this data.

dluan3• 11 years ago

Here we go! Also for anyone else who's interested in helping to fund these experiments.

http://blog.experiment.com/post/117058351892/rfp-nasa-open-d...

As long as they are primarily working off the new tools, can be published/shared openly, and within $500 to $5k, then let's see what we can come up with!

jplahn• 11 years ago

This is awesome! I'm currently working through a machine learning project for one of my classes, and I was using flight data (which is also super interesting), but the inner astronomer in me is pushing for me to scrap everything I've done and pick a dataset from here.

But, even if I don't, I foresee many experiments with this data. Awesome.

dhammer4• 11 years ago

i'm hoping to publish astronomy images here, just like the earth imagery - so that you can run your algorithms to detect light blobs, etc.

rafaqueque• 11 years ago

Glad to see this.

niels_olson• 11 years ago

Can somebody put together a quick tutorial on how to get from this API to charts generated in ipython?

anigbrowl• 11 years ago

Not only is this API availability great, the short descriptions of what each one does are outstanding. So many 'try our API' pages are written in developer-ese that tells you up front about the mechanics of interacting with it but fail to explain what sort of things you could do with it. Documentation is much more than just a command reference!

hrayr3• 11 years ago

Looks like they need to work on better error controls. They left DEBUG=True which produces debug stack traces on exceptions.

https://api.data.gov/nasa/planetary/earth/assets?lon=100.75&...

dhammer4• 11 years ago

I am the developer that left the stack trace on returned exceptions. This is part of my Presidential Innovation Fellowship project at NASA. Yes, we work with the Chief Data Scientist, who is a wonderful and brilliant guy. Yes, we work with state and local governments, too - where "we" is civic tech in the US government (18F, USDS, PIF, among others). I'd love help on these APIs. First step: submit issues on the docs (github.com/nasa/api-docs).

hrayr3• 11 years ago

Hey good job. Did you leave the stack trace on purpose or by accident?

dhammer4• 11 years ago

a mix? maybe? i'm sort of swamped. i wish i could open this up to get some help. but i can't yet.

hackerews• 11 years ago

If you're lazy like me and want to fiddle around without reading docs, here are code + spreadsheet snippets for 2 endpoints:

- Landsat8 Satellite Images: https://api.blockspring.com/pkpp1233/nasa-earth-image#use-in....

- Local Temperature Anomalies: https://api.blockspring.com/pkpp1233/earth-temperature-anoma....

What a neat API. Cheers!

spiritplumber2• 11 years ago

I wonder how hard it would be to put this stuff into Kerbal Space Program and update the solar system in realtime...

j0e1• 11 years ago

Finally! A trusted/standard API for APOD.. Will make the code of my hobbyist Android App so much cleaner.

dunk010• 11 years ago

I read this as "NSA data API" and it took me a full 5 seconds of staring, eyebrows raised, at the astronaut to realise my mistake.

imaginenore• 11 years ago

I bet it exists internally :)

Derpdiherp• 11 years ago

Bah - I managed to get a few landsat images through the earth API. I was going to construct a timelapse of new orleans through the 2005 floods. But when I specify I date I'm always getting an exception - Exception: No imagery for specified date.

It would be nice if there was some more info on what the datasets actually are - such as when they where created etc. It would also be nice for this to have some more detailed logs - such as the date of images that are actually returned if it's an approximation of the date you've specified.

dhammer4• 11 years ago

fair. try the assets endpoint (http://nasa.github.io/api-docs/#assets). but i'll work on this. add an issue here: https://github.com/nasa/api-docs

alexellis• 11 years ago

Gist in node.js for getting a list of fly-bys of satellite (apparently every 16 days) for a lat/lon combination and then downloading the images for inspection. Tweak the 'dim' for zoom level.

https://gist.github.com/alexellis/0bb982253f3619e29f18

NASA data API

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