The Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition (CSDA) program evaluates and procures data from commercial vendors that advance NASA’s Earth science research and applications activities.
Currently, data acquired during the evaluations of Planet, Maxar, BlackSky, GHGSat, Airbus U.S., and Spire Global are available. Data from the Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc., DLR Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer (DESIS) also are available through a separate collaboration with the International Space Station (ISS). See the table below to learn how to access vendor-specific data. All data products are available through CSDA at no cost to authorized researchers and are subject to scientific use licenses.
The commercial data currently distributed by NASA are available under different scientific use licenses and various access portals. Please see table below for data access portals and vendor-specific end user license agreement (EULA) information. Check back for updates on new data acquisitions.
Data and End User License Agreements
Vendor | Data Available | Date Range | Who is authorized to use the data | Scientific use only | Where to get archived data | EULA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Planet | PlanetScope | 6/29/2014-Present | U.S. Federal civil agencies (including NSF) and their funded researchers | Yes | Planet Explorer | Planet Expanded EULA |
RapidEye | 2/1/2009-12/31/2019 | |||||
SkySat | 3/10/2015-12/12/2019 | SDX | ||||
Maxar (formerly DigitalGlobe) | WorldView 1 | 09/18/2007-Present | NASA (funded) researchers | Yes | CSDA data team | Commercial Data/Imagery EULAs Fact Sheet |
WorldView 2 | 10/8/2009-Present | |||||
WorldView 3 | 8/13/2014-Present | |||||
GeoEye-1 | 9/6/2008-Present | |||||
QuickBird | 10/18/2001-1/27/2015 | |||||
IKONOS | 10/24/1999-3/31/2015 | NextView License | ||||
WorldView 4 | 12/1/2016- 1/7/2019 | |||||
Maxar EULA | ||||||
BlackSky | Spaceview-24 | 11/29/2018- 07/31/2023 | U.S. Government (funded) researchers | Yes | SDX | USG EULA |
GHGSat | Methane Abundance and Emission Rates | 06/01/2016- 04/31/2024 | U.S. Government (funded) researchers | Yes | SDX | USG EULA |
Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc. | DESIS | 11/21/2018- 05/31/2024 | U.S. Government (funded) researchers | Yes |
For available archived data contact: support-csda@earthdata.nasa.gov |
DESIS EULA |
Polar Geospatial Center | EarthDEM | U.S. Government (funded) researchers |
N/A For further information contact pgc-support@umn.edu |
SDX | Commercial Data/Imagery EULAs Fact Sheet | |
Airbus U.S. | TerraSAR-X | 11/19/2007-11/25/2022 | U.S. Government (funded) researchers | Yes | SDX | Airbus U.S. USG EULA. |
TanDEM-X | 2/3/2011-11/4/2022 | |||||
PAZ | 9/20/2018-10/2/2022 | |||||
Spire | GNSS Radio Occultation |
9/24/2018 - 12/9/2018; |
U.S. Government (funded) researchers | Yes | SDX | Spire USG EULA |
GNSS Grazing Angle Reflectometry |
1/9/2019-4/18/2019; 11/1/2019-Present |
|||||
GNSS Grazing Angle Reflectometry Sea Ice | 3/1/2020-Present | |||||
GNSS Grazing Angle Reflectometry Altimetry | 6/16/2020-Present | |||||
GNSS-R Level-1 Bistatic RCS | 5/1/2021-Present | |||||
Ionospheric Profiles | 11/1/2019-Present | |||||
Magnetometer | 11/1/2019-Present | Request authorization | ||||
Raw Radio Occultation | 6/17/2020-9/8/2020 | By request (PDF) | ||||
Satellite Precise Orbital Determination (POD) and Satellite Attitude | 9/24/2018-4/18/2019; 11/1/2019 -Present |
SDX | ||||
Scintillation | 11/1/2019-Present | |||||
Total Electron Content | 11/1/2019-Present | |||||
Ocean Winds and MSS | 5/1/2021-Present |
Principal Investigators should submit publications as a courtesy copy to the vendor.
CSDA-acquired data is for Scientific use, which is defined as use by Licensed Users of the data products pursuant to a NASA-initiated, U.S. Government-funded, and/or U.S. Government-peer reviewed investigation established through a NASA Research Announcement or similar public notice of opportunity, and performed for the sole purpose of conducting experiments, evaluation, research, and/or development, including basic and applied research under Government Science Program. Scientific use is not intended for the development of commercial products or services and does not include activities funded or sponsored by non-governmental organizations or activities outside of the U.S. Government.
Value-Added Product means a work that is created when a Licensed User modifies Licensed Material—through technical manipulation, addition of data, or both—where the principal features and characteristics of the source Licensed Material are retained in the work and are extractable through technical means. Value-Added Products created from Licensed Material received under this agreement will be considered as Licensed Material.
Derived Product means a work that is created when a Licensed User exploits Licensed Material in a manner that irreversibly modifies and uncouples the work from its source, such that extraction of the principal features and characteristics of the source Licensed Material is impracticable. This includes but is not limited to License User derived Digital Elevation Models. Derived Products are not considered Licensed Materials.
All data requests must be approved by CSDA data managers. To request access to CSDA data offerings, complete the CSDA Authorization form. The CSDA team will verify if the user is authorized for data access first. Once verified, the user will be provided with additional information on how to request and access data.
Get answers to frequently asked questions about accessing and requesting commercial data.
For vendor specific details including a list of available satellites, their orbits, and their sensors' temporal and spectral resolutions please see information for each vendor:
Vendor |
---|
Planet |
Maxar |
GHGSat |
Spire |
Teledyne Brown Engineering |
Polar Geospatial Center |
Airbus U.S. |
Spire |