GIS at NASA: Expanding the Understanding of Earth Science

Explore NASA Earth Observation Data

NASA data are available without restriction. Explore recent uses of data incorporating GIS technology.

image of lights and connections around planet earth

A Global Showcase for NASA GIS Resources: The Esri User Conference

NASA geographic information systems (GIS) resources were front and center at the Esri international User Conference in July 2023. Multiple NASA Earth science teams demonstrated the many GIS capabilities provided by the agency.

This diagram shows the interconnected nature of NASA's Earthdata GIS efforts and how they can be applied in programming languages and GIS software.

Webinar: Increasing NASA Earth Science Data Accessibility with GIS

Learn about Geographic Information Systems (GIS) initiatives by NASA’s Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program and see demonstrations of GIS services and capabilities for improving your data workflow. View the webinar recording.

5-panel image showing various GIS maps with words GIS Day 2022 in white with words Geographic Information Systems in white below.

Celebrate GIS Day 2022!

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide powerful capabilities for visualizing, analyzing, and interacting with Earth science data.

this is an image of the Tropical Cyclone Dashboard on the Disasters Mapping Portal

Evolving GIS Technologies Advance Disaster Management

“A picture is worth a thousand words” is a saying largely undisputed in its accuracy. There’s a reason several different languages and cultures have a version of this popular idiom. Graphics can convey in seconds what words need more time to say. When disasters strike, every minute and second becomes incredibly precious. During critical times, geographic information systems (GIS) become indispensable in disseminating data in a way everyday people can quickly understand.

New Getting Started with NASA Worldview Tutorial

In this tutorial, learn how to use NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Worldview imagery mapping and visualization application to explore and visualize NASA Earth science imagery to see hurricanes forming, wildfires spreading, icebergs drifting and more.

Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) APIs

GIBS APIs provide access to global, full-resolution satellite imagery in a highly responsible manner, enabling interactive exploration of Earth.

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See GIS in Action

Collaborate and create interactive applications combining high value data together in an interactive, informative, web-based application. Focusing on key topics or themes allows users to see the best available data from NASA to help them understand complex challenges facing our world.

Datasets have a story to tell. Engage and inspire your audience by combining text, images, and other multimedia content with maps. You have the local knowledge and expertise; now begin and sustain a meaningful connection with your users.

Learn about NASA Earthdata as Image Services

Image services are a way to process and share collections of imagery. This provides considerable flexibility and scalability for storing, processing, analyzing, and sharing imagery and raster products. These flexible and robust services can be comprised of a variety of data types, both large and small, and can be multiband or multidimensional.

These services leverage a powerful server backend to perform the required processing on-the-fly and dynamic mosaicking of images. These applications can access the imagery as a seamless mosaic or query into the metadata of each image to display only a selection of the data or apply processing across datasets to find differences or perform classification. These processes can include reprojection, orthorectification, clipping, the application of complex image processing algorithms, and more.

Clients can connect to image services using an ArcGIS Server connection or via REST. Additionally, image services can be published with the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) Web Map Service (WMS) or Web Coverage Service (WCS) capabilities. By adding additional capabilities, clients can access your image service in an expanded variety of applications and devices.

ArcGIS Image Services can also be accessed and used inside open-source tools such as QGIS and Jupyter Notebooks.

See NASA Data as Image Services in Action

Find and Use Image Services

NASA’s Earthdata Geographic Information System (EGIS) is a resource for distributing cloud-native, GIS-ready NASA Earth observation data, services, and resources. This includes ArcGIS and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)-compliant raster and feature geospatial services and raster analytic functions. EGIS will provide a consistent user experience and enhance resource discovery through primary platforms commonly used by the GIS community. Check out published image services currently available. Additionally, other imagery layers are available that are built using NASA data.