The search page will locate publicly available files within the Ocean Data Processing System (ODPS). It will return a list of file names that match the search criteria in a format similar to this:
There are four main ways to search through the files, with each requiring a start and end date.
Mission: Select a satellite instrument from the "Mission" drop down menu, choose a data type, and enter a date range. Some data types may have additional options to select.
Ancillary: Select an instrument from the "Mission" drop down list and choose an ancillary data type and date range.
Subscription: Enter a Subscription ID and a date range to list the file names associated with that subscription.
Advanced: This mode contains the same basic data as the "Mission" search, however, the "Mission" drop down contains additional, less popular mission types as well as a text field for narrowing down a search by file name. A few examples of how to do this are listed in the table below, but for more information, please see our revised File-naming Convention page for instructions and examples.
Pattern Entered
What It Does
AUQA_MODIS.20220515*
Queries all files from May 15, 2022 for the AQUA MODIS instrument.
SNPP_VIIRS.20190101T123600.L1A*
Locate a specific file
NOAA20_VIIRS.201912[0-9]*GEO.nc
Queries all files from days 120-129 for the year 2019 for the NOAA20 VIIRS instrument. (Note: This type of search may run slowly.)
Special Characters for Searching:
'*'
Match any string, including the null string
'?'
Match any single character
'[...]'
Match any one of the enclosed characters
Additional Options
The "Additional Options" checkboxes allow further customization of the output.
Display results as text, one file name per line: This will print each file name on its own line. It will generate a list like this:
std_only - restrict results to standard products (i.e. ignore extracts, regional processings, etc.; boolean)
cksum - return a checksum file for search results (boolean; sha1sums except for Aquarius soil moisture products which are md5sums; forces results_as_file; ignores addurl)
format - file is returned in format specified.
valid options: txt, json, html
Here is an example using the file search utility to find and download OCTS daily L3 binned chlorophyll data from November 1, 1996 through December 31, 1999.
OB.DAAC provides an API for use through a command line interface (CLI) or programming language.
Posting Information
Method: HTTP GET
Base URL: https://oceandata.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/api/file_search
Submission Field List
Searching by Subscription
Name
Submission Field Name
Mandatory
Format
Values
Notes
Subscription ID
subID
REQUIRED
int(10)
Ex. 5325
Subscription ID to search
Note: If no start date is supplied, the default start date will be set three days prior to today's date.
Subscription Type
subType
OPTIONAL
int(1)
Acceptable Values
Subscription Type
1
Non-Extracted
2
Extracted
Default: 1
File Processing Start Date
psdate
OPTIONAL
date(YYYY-MM-DD 00:00:00)
Ex. 2022-08-27 00:00:00
Default: 3 days ago
File Processing End Date
pedate
OPTIONAL
date(YYYY-MM-DD 00:00:00)
Ex. 2022-08-27 23:59:59
Default: Today's date
Searching OB.DAAC Data
Name
Submission Field Name
Mandatory
Format
Values
Notes
Sensor ID
sensor_id
REQUIRED
int(2)
Acceptable Values
Show/hide sensor list
0
Global (All Sensors)
6
SeaWiFS
7
Aqua-MODIS
8
Terra-MODIS
9
OCTS
11
CZCS
14
SNPP-VIIRS
19
MERIS
21
OCM2
25
HICO
27
GOCI
28
L8OLI
29
S3A-OLCI
32
OCIA
33
NOAA20-VIIRS
35
SE1-Hawkeye
36
S3B-OLCI
39
Merged-S3-CYAN
41
PACE_SPEXONE
42
PACE_OCI
43
NOAA21-VIIRS
44
MERIS-ILW
46
S3A-ILW
47
S3B-ILW
49
Merged-S3-ILW
Data Class
dtype
REQUIRED
varchar(30)
Acceptable Values
The data type or level of the product
Show/hide data class list
L0
Level 0
L1
Level 1
L2
Level 2
L3b
Level 3 Binned data
L3m
Level 3 Mapped data
MET
Ancillary data
misc
Sundry products
Data Type ID
dtid
REQUIRED
int(10)
Ex. 1115
A dynamically-populated data type identifier.
Start Date
sdate
CONDITIONAL
date(YYYY-MM-DD 00:00:00)
Ex. 2022-08-27 00:00:00
One of the following is required:
Start and end dates
File processing start and end dates
Use either start/end dates or processing start/end dates, not both.
End Date
edate
CONDITIONAL
date(YYYY-MM-DD 00:00:00)
Ex. 2022-08-27 23:59:59
File Processing Start Date
psdate
CONDITIONAL
date(YYYY-MM-DD 00:00:00)
Ex. 2022-08-27 00:00:00
One of the following is required:
File processing start and end dates
Start and end dates
Use either start/end dates or processing start/end dates, not both.
File Processing End Date
pedate
CONDITIONAL
date(YYYY-MM-DD 00:00:00)
Ex. 2022-08-27 23:59:59
Include Full URL
addurl
OPTIONAL
boolean
Acceptable Values
If a '1' is set, this will prepend the fully qualified domain name to the beginning of the file name.
Default: '0'
Search String
search
OPTIONAL
varchar(255)
Ex. *DAY.CHL*
(This would match files like AQUA_MODIS.20130115.L3b.DAY.CHL.nc)
File name pattern search.
Special Characters for Searching:
'*'
Match any string, including the null string
'?'
Match any single character
'[...]'
Match any one of the enclosed characters
Note: A minimum of four characters are required.
Default: Empty string
Display a checksum hash
cksum
OPTIONAL
boolean
Acceptable Values
If a '1' is set, a checksum hash will be dispalyed alongside the filenames returned in the search results.
Note:
Checksums are SHA1 hashes
This option forces `results_as_file` to 1
This option forces `addurl` to 0
Default: 0
Return Results as a File
results_as_file
OPTIONAL
boolean
Acceptable Values
If a '1' is set, results will be returned as a text file listing, otherwise an HTML page will be returned
Default: 0
Results Format
format
OPTIONAL
varchar(4)
Acceptable Values
The format the results will be returned in. Default: 'txt'
Bulk Data Downloads: Users who want to download a large number of files will need to use a non-interactive method of pulling the data from the server. Please use the following link for data download methods.
