NASA Earthdata Search: Satellite Datasets and Data Files

Search NASA's Earth-science metadata catalog without a key: datasets by keyword, mission, instrument, data center, processing level, bounding box and time range, or the single data files of a dataset with size, day/night flag, footprint and download, S3 and OPeNDAP links.

Every Earth observation dataset NASA distributes is registered in the Common Metadata Repository, the index behind the Earthdata Search website: 58 data centers (provider ids read on 2026-10-07), their datasets, and every single file of every dataset. This actor turns that index into dataset rows. In collections mode one row is one dataset — title, short name, concept id, publishing data center, satellites, processing level, period covered, footprint and how many files the archive holds. In granules mode one row is one data file — its acquisition window, size in megabytes, footprint, and its HTTPS download, s3://, OPeNDAP and browse-image addresses.

It reads metadata only and never downloads a data file: the file's address ends up in your row, so a file that needs a free Earthdata Login account still gives you a usable link. No API key, no account, no cookie, no browser, no proxy. All dates are UTC ISO-8601.

Need it tailored to your workflow? Missing a field, a filter, another source or a different output format? Open an issue and describe what you need — we read every request and adapt the actor.

Use cases

• Find the dataset behind a question. A fire, water or air-quality analyst types wildfire, soil moisture or air quality into query, switches withGranulesOnly on, and gets the datasets that really hold data, with their file counts.
• Inventory one mission or one archive. A remote-sensing team lists everything MODIS on Terra produced inside the land-processes archive (platforms, instruments, providers) ordered by how much people download it — an internal catalog in one run.
• See what covers your area. A regional GIS or environment agency sets boundingBox (or point for a single city) plus processingLevels 3 and 4 and gets the analysis-ready products whose footprint overlaps the area.
• Get the files for an area and a week. A data engineer switches to granules, names the dataset in shortNames, sets the box and the two dates, and gets one row per file with the download, S3 and OPeNDAP links to feed a pipeline.
• Watch a dataset for new files. A scheduled task in granules mode with one shortNames value, sort on newest first, onlyNew on and a small maxItems writes only the files that appeared since the previous run — and pays for nothing else.
• Feed an agent or a pipeline. Set fields to four or five columns and maxSummaryChars to 0: short rows with the permanent conceptId as the key, cheap enough to call on every question.
• Size a download before you pay for it. granuleCount says how many files a dataset holds, so you know in advance whether a granules run on it is 40 rows or four million.

Input

Every field is optional. The prefill is query: "wildfire" — run the actor as it comes and you get 25 wildfire datasets.

Field	Type	Default	Allowed values / notes
mode	string (enum)	collections	collections (one row per dataset) or granules (one row per data file). A granules run needs shortNames or conceptIds. Strict: the platform refuses any other value before the run starts.
query	string	(prefill wildfire)	Free-text search over dataset title, summary, science keywords, mission and instrument names. Sent to the source. collections mode only — the catalog has no free-text search over files.
shortNames	string[]	(empty)	The dataset's own short name: MOD11A1, VNP46A2, MUR-JPL-L4-GLOB-v4.1. At most 20, OR-combined. Checked against the catalog first; see Dataset short names.
conceptIds	string[]	(empty)	The catalog's permanent dataset id, C<digits>-<DATACENTER>. At most 20, OR-combined. Checked against the catalog first.
platforms	string[]	(empty)	Satellite or mission names, at most 10, OR-combined. Sent to the source. See Satellites and platforms.
instruments	string[]	(empty)	Sensor names, at most 10, OR-combined. Sent to the source. See Instruments.
providers	string[]	(empty)	Data-center ids, at most 10, OR-combined. Sent to the source as the provider filter. See Data centers.
processingLevels	string[] (enum)	(empty = all)	0, 1, 1A, 1B, 1C, 1T, 2, 2G, 2P, 3, 4, NA. Sent to the source. collections mode only. Strict: an off-list value is refused by the platform before the run.
boundingBox	string	(empty)	west,south,east,north in degrees, e.g. 46,40,88,56. Sent to the source. Overlap, not containment.
point	string	(empty)	longitude,latitude, e.g. 76.889,43.238. Sent to the source. Ignored when boundingBox is also set (the run says so).
temporalFrom	string	(empty)	2026-09-01 or 2026-09-01T00:00:00Z, read as UTC. Sent to the source.
temporalTo	string	(empty)	Same format, inclusive, UTC. Sent to the source.
cloudHostedOnly	boolean	false	Keep only datasets the archive moved into cloud storage (their files carry s3:// links). Sent to the source. collections mode only.
downloadableOnly	boolean	false	Keep only records the catalog marks as having online access to the data. Sent to the source, both modes.
withGranulesOnly	boolean	false	Keep only datasets that already hold at least one file. Sent to the source. collections mode only.
sort	string (enum)	relevance	relevance, newestData, oldestData, mostUsed, title. See Sort orders. Strict enum.
onlyNew	boolean	false	Remember the concept ids this run wrote and, next run of the same actor or task, write only ids that were not written before. Applied by this actor.
maxItems	integer	25	1–2000. Hard cap on the rows written, and therefore on what the run costs.
includeGranuleCounts	boolean	true	Fill the granuleCount column. Costs no extra request. collections mode only.
maxSummaryChars	integer	1200	0–20000. The summary column is cut to this many characters at a word boundary; 0 leaves the column out of the row. collections mode only.
fields	string[]	(all)	Keep only the named columns, in this order. rowType, conceptId, title, url and fetchedAt are always kept — the ones you do not name come first, and one you do name moves to the position you gave it. Letter case does not matter; a name this mode has no column for is reported in the status message, and a list with no real column at all is refused.

Free-text fields and strict enum fields are different. shortNames, conceptIds, platforms, instruments and providers are free text: case, surrounding spaces, accents, _/-/space differences and the aliases listed below are all accepted, and any other spelling is refused with the closest known values in the message — never swapped for something else, because a near miss is another dataset as often as a typo. mode, sort and processingLevels are enum fields: the Apify platform refuses an off-list value with HTTP 400 before the run starts, so there is no typo correction for them and the allowed values must be written exactly as listed.

Reference

Sort orders

Value	collections	granules
relevance	the source's own ranking (only meaningful together with query)	the source's own order
newestData	datasets whose data starts latest first	newest file first — the order a watch task wants
oldestData	earliest data first	oldest file first
mostUsed	datasets people download most first	no equivalent: the run orders files newest first instead and says so in its status message
title	dataset title, A to Z	file name, A to Z

Processing levels

Value	What it is
0	Raw instrument data, unprocessed.
1, 1A, 1B, 1C, 1T	Instrument measurements — radiances and brightness values, with calibration and geolocation added at the later letters.
2, 2P	Geophysical values (temperature, moisture, concentration) along the satellite's own track.
2G	The same, resampled onto a grid but still per orbit.
3	Gridded and averaged over space and time — the usual choice for a map.
4	Model or analysis output that blends several sources, e.g. a reanalysis.
NA	The publisher gave no level.

An off-list value here is refused by the platform before the run starts, with the allowed values in the error.

Data centers

The providers input takes the catalog's own data-center id, which is exactly what the dataCenter column of every row carries. The ones people ask for most:

Id	Archives
LPCLOUD	Land products: MODIS and VIIRS land, ECOSTRESS, EMIT, Landsat-derived surface reflectance.
LAADS	Atmosphere and calibrated radiances, and the VIIRS nighttime-lights products.
POCLOUD	Physical oceanography: sea surface temperature, sea level, salinity, ocean winds.
NSIDC_ECS, NSIDC_CPRD	Snow, ice, glaciers, frozen ground, ICESat-2 and SMAP.
GES_DISC, GESDISCCLD	Atmospheric composition, water and energy cycle, MERRA-2 and GPM.
ORNL_CLOUD, ORNL_DAAC	Biogeochemistry, vegetation, carbon and field campaigns.
ASF	Synthetic-aperture radar: Sentinel-1, ALOS, NISAR.
LARC_CLOUD, LARC_ASDC	Clouds, aerosols, radiation budget, tropospheric chemistry.
OB_DAAC, OB_CLOUD, OBPG	Ocean biology and ocean colour.
SEDAC	Human dimensions: population, settlements, health and climate.
GHRC, GHRC_CLOUD	Hydrology, lightning, severe weather field campaigns.
USGS_EROS, USGS_LTA	USGS-held Landsat and land-imaging collections.
SCIOPS	Older campaign and partner records registered without a cloud archive.
LANCEMODIS, LANCEAMSR2, OMINRT	Near-real-time streams, hours after acquisition.
ESA, EUMETSAT, JAXA, ISRO, INPE, CCMEO	Partner agency records registered in the same catalog.

Fifty-eight ids exist in total; the run refuses an id the catalog does not have and names the closest ones. Spoken names are accepted as aliases: PO.DAAC → POCLOUD, LP DAAC / LPDAAC → LPCLOUD, NSIDC → NSIDC_ECS, GES DISC → GES_DISC, ORNL → ORNL_CLOUD, ASDC → LARC_ASDC, FIRMS → LM_FIRMS, NCEI → NOAA_NCEI, Alaska Satellite Facility → ASF. Two spellings that look like aliases are ids of their own and stay as typed: PODAAC and ORNL_DAAC are the older, non-cloud archives of the same institutions.

Satellites and platforms

Spelled as the catalog spells them (case and spaces do not matter):

Terra, Aqua, Suomi-NPP, NOAA-20, NOAA-21, Landsat-5, Landsat-7, Landsat-8, Landsat-9, Sentinel-1A, Sentinel-1B, Sentinel-2A, Sentinel-2B, Sentinel-3A, Sentinel-3B, Sentinel-5P, Sentinel-6A, ICESat, ICESat-2, SMAP, GPM, TRMM, GRACE, GRACE-FO, CALIPSO, CloudSat, Aura, OCO-2, OCO-3, ISS, Nimbus-7, JASON-1, JASON-2, JASON-3, TOPEX/POSEIDON, SWOT, NISAR, PACE, GOES-16, GOES-17, GOES-18, METOP-A, METOP-B, METOP-C, ENVISAT, ERS-1, ERS-2, ALOS, RADARSAT-1, Aquarius_SAC-D.

The catalog also uses non-satellite platform words, and they work the same way: AIRCRAFT, BUOYS, FIELD SURVEYS, MODELS, COMPUTERS, NOT APPLICABLE. Aliases include snpp / npp → Suomi-NPP, Sentinel-6 and Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich → Sentinel-6A, Aquarius → Aquarius_SAC-D, TOPEX → TOPEX/POSEIDON, International Space Station → ISS.

The catalog's full platform vocabulary is far longer than this list. A name that is not listed here is checked against the catalog itself before the run searches: if some dataset really uses it, the run accepts it as typed; if nothing does, the run stops with the closest names from the list above. That check costs one extra request per unlisted name.

Instruments

MODIS, VIIRS, ASTER, MISR, MOPITT, AIRS, AMSU-A, AMSR-E, AMSR2, ATLAS, OLI, OLI-2, TIRS, TIRS-2, ETM+, TM, MSS, SAR, PALSAR, SLSTR, OLCI, SRAL, TROPOMI, OMI, OMPS, MLS, TES, GMI, DPR, PR, TMI, ECOSTRESS, GEDI, AVHRR, SeaWiFS, OCI, ABI, POSEIDON-3, SMAP L-BAND RADAR, LIDAR, SPECTROMETERS. Aliases: ETM → ETM+, AMSR-2 → AMSR2. Unlisted names are checked against the catalog, exactly as for the platforms.

Dataset short names

Worth knowing, all checked against the catalog on 2026-10-07:

Short name	Dataset	Data center
MOD11A1	MODIS/Terra daily land surface temperature, 1 km grid	LPCLOUD
MOD09GA	MODIS/Terra daily surface reflectance, 1 km grid	LPCLOUD
MYD09GA	The same from Aqua	LPCLOUD
VNP46A2	VIIRS Black Marble gap-filled nighttime lights, daily	LAADS
MUR-JPL-L4-GLOB-v4.1	MUR global sea surface temperature analysis, 1 km	POCLOUD
MUR25-JPL-L4-GLOB-v04.2	The same at 25 km, lighter files	POCLOUD
OSTIA-UKMO-L4-GLOB-REP-v2.0	OSTIA reprocessed sea surface temperature	POCLOUD
SPL3SMP_E	SMAP enhanced soil moisture, 9 km grid	NSIDC_CPRD
SPL4SMGP	SMAP level-4 surface and root-zone soil moisture	NSIDC_CPRD
M2SMNXEDI	MERRA-2 extreme precipitation and temperature indices	GES_DISC

A short name the catalog does not know never becomes a wider search: it gets its own row with found: false and a note on what to do instead (and that row is billed like any other).

Bounding boxes to start from

Area	boundingBox
Kazakhstan and Central Asia	46,40,88,56
Contiguous United States	-125,24,-66,50
Western Europe	-10,35,30,60
Amazon basin	-79,-18,-44,6
Sub-Saharan Africa	-18,-35,52,16
South and East Asia	60,5,150,55
Arctic Ocean	-180,66,180,90

A dataset or file matches when its own footprint overlaps the box, so a global dataset matches every box — that is the source's rule, not ours.

Examples

Which NASA datasets exist about wildfire, and do they hold files?

{ "mode": "collections", "query": "wildfire", "withGranulesOnly": true, "includeGranuleCounts": true, "maxItems": 20 }

Sea surface temperature datasets a cloud job can read directly

{ "mode": "collections", "query": "sea surface temperature", "cloudHostedOnly": true, "downloadableOnly": true, "maxItems": 20 }

Everything MODIS/Terra in the land-processes archive, most used first

{ "mode": "collections", "providers": ["LPCLOUD"], "platforms": ["Terra"], "instruments": ["MODIS"], "withGranulesOnly": true, "sort": "mostUsed", "maxItems": 25 }

Analysis-ready products covering Central Asia, with data since 2020

{ "mode": "collections", "boundingBox": "46,40,88,56", "temporalFrom": "2020-01-01", "processingLevels": ["3", "4"], "maxItems": 20 }

The MODIS land-surface-temperature files over a box and three days

{ "mode": "granules", "shortNames": ["MOD11A1"], "boundingBox": "70,40,80,50", "temporalFrom": "2026-09-01", "temporalTo": "2026-09-03", "sort": "newestData", "maxItems": 20 }

The files of one dataset by its permanent concept id, A to Z

{ "mode": "granules", "conceptIds": ["C1748058432-LPCLOUD"], "sort": "title", "maxItems": 10 }

The newest nighttime-lights files, as a daily watch task

{ "mode": "granules", "shortNames": ["VNP46A2"], "sort": "newestData", "onlyNew": true, "maxItems": 20 }

Short rows for an agent: ids, data center and size only

{ "mode": "collections", "query": "soil moisture", "withGranulesOnly": true, "maxSummaryChars": 0,
  "fields": ["title", "shortName", "dataCenter", "granuleCount", "timeStart"], "maxItems": 20 }

Output

One real dataset row from the cloud run 4uT0wCs5LO6aOArAZ (long arrays and the summary trimmed with … by the sampler):

{
  "rowType": "collection",
  "conceptId": "C1748058432-LPCLOUD",
  "title": "MODIS/Terra Land Surface Temperature/Emissivity Daily L3 Global 1km SIN Grid V061",
  "url": "https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/search/granules?p=C1748058432-LPCLOUD",
  "fetchedAt": "2026-10-07T22:50:53.654Z",
  "shortName": "MOD11A1",
  "versionId": "061",
  "entryId": "MOD11A1_061",
  "dataCenter": "LPCLOUD",
  "archiveCenter": "LP DAAC",
  "organizations": [
    "LP DAAC",
    "NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/MODAPS"
  ],
  "platforms": [
    "Terra"
  ],
  "processingLevel": "3",
  "collectionDataType": "SCIENCE_QUALITY",
  "consortiums": [
    "GEOSS",
    "EOSDIS"
  ],
  "granuleCount": 3049436,
  "cloudHosted": true,
  "onlineAccess": true,
  "hasBrowse": true,
  "timeStart": "2000-02-24T00:00:00.000Z",
  "timeEnd": null,
  "ongoing": true,
  "boxes": [
    "-90 -180 90 180"
  ],
  "polygons": [],
  "points": [],
  "coordinateSystem": "CARTESIAN",
  "originalFormat": "UMM_JSON",
  "revisionDate": "2021-02-04T00:00:00.000Z",
  "doiUrl": "https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD11A1.061",
  "documentationUrls": [
    "https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/119/MOD11_ATBD.pdf",
    "https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/715/MOD11_User_Guide_V61.pdf",
    "https://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/filespec/MODIS/61/MOD11A1",
    "https://modis-land.gsfc.nasa.gov/ValStatus.php?ProductID=MOD11",
    "https://modis-land.gsfc.nasa.gov/MODLAND_val.html",
    "…"
  ],
  "source": "cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov",
  "summary": "The Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Land Surface Temperature/Emissivity Daily (MOD11A1) Version 6.1 product provides daily per-pixel Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity…"
}

And one real data-file row, from the cloud run ec7jskhpiWkgK13vE:

{
  "rowType": "granule",
  "conceptId": "G4298541041-LPCLOUD",
  "title": "MOD11A1.A2026246.h22v04.061.2026247201930",
  "url": "https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/search/granules?p=C1748058432-LPCLOUD",
  "fetchedAt": "2026-10-07T22:50:58.268Z",
  "producerGranuleId": "MOD11A1.A2026246.h22v04.061.2026247201930",
  "granuleUr": "MOD11A1.A2026246.h22v04.061.2026247201930",
  "collectionConceptId": "C1748058432-LPCLOUD",
  "datasetTitle": "MODIS/Terra Land Surface Temperature/Emissivity Daily L3 Global 1km SIN Grid V061",
  "dataCenter": "LPCLOUD",
  "dayNightFlag": "BOTH",
  "granuleSizeMb": 6.4578,
  "timeStart": "2026-09-03T00:00:00.000Z",
  "timeEnd": "2026-09-03T23:59:59.000Z",
  "boxes": [],
  "polygons": [
    "39.834 52.0142 39.7925 65.168 49.9983 77.8098 50.0583 62.1214 39.834 52.0142"
  ],
  "points": [],
  "coordinateSystem": "GEODETIC",
  "onlineAccess": true,
  "hasBrowse": true,
  "originalFormat": "ECHO10",
  "revisionDate": "2026-09-04T20:53:04.983Z",
  "downloadUrls": [
    "https://data.lpdaac.earthdatacloud.nasa.gov/lp-prod-protected/MOD11A1.061/MOD11A1.A2026246.h22v04.061.2026247201930/MOD11A1.A2026246.h22v04.061.2026247201930.hdf"
  ],
  "s3Urls": [
    "s3://lp-prod-protected/MOD11A1.061/MOD11A1.A2026246.h22v04.061.2026247201930/MOD11A1.A2026246.h22v04.061.2026247201930.hdf"
  ],
  "opendapUrl": "https://opendap.earthdata.nasa.gov/collections/C1748058432-LPCLOUD/granules/MOD11A1.A2026246.h22v04.061.2026247201930",
  "browseUrls": [
    "https://data.lpdaac.earthdatacloud.nasa.gov/lp-prod-public/MOD11A1.061/MOD11A1.A2026246.h22v04.061.2026247201930/BROWSE.MOD11A1.A2026246.h22v04.061.2026247201933.1.jpg",
    "https://data.lpdaac.earthdatacloud.nasa.gov/lp-prod-public/MOD11A1.061/MOD11A1.A2026246.h22v04.061.2026247201930/BROWSE.MOD11A1.A2026246.h22v04.061.2026247201933.2.jpg"
  ],
  "metadataUrls": [
    "https://data.lpdaac.earthdatacloud.nasa.gov/lp-prod-protected/MOD11A1.061/MOD11A1.A2026246.h22v04.061.2026247201930/MOD11A1.A2026246.h22v04.061.2026247201930.cmr.xml",
    "https://data.lpdaac.earthdatacloud.nasa.gov/s3credentials",
    "https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/centers/lp-daac"
  ],
  "doiUrl": "https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD11A1.061",
  "needsEarthdataLogin": true,
  "source": "cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov"
}

Always present, in both modes

Field	Type	Meaning
rowType	string	collection, granule, or notFound for a marker row.
conceptId	string	The catalog's permanent id of the dataset (C…) or the file (G…). Empty only on a marker row.
title	string	Dataset title, or the producer's file name.
url	string	The catalog's own public page for the dataset and its files.
fetchedAt	string	When this run read the record, UTC.

Dataset rows (collections)

Field	Type	Meaning
shortName, versionId, entryId	string	The dataset's short name, version and the two joined.
summary	string	The publisher's description, cut to maxSummaryChars. Left out when that is 0.
dataCenter	string	Publishing data center, the same id the providers input takes.
archiveCenter, organizations	string, string[]	The archiving organisation in its own spelling, and every organisation listed.
platforms	string[]	Satellites, aircraft, buoys or models behind the dataset.
processingLevel	string	0 … 4 or NA.
collectionDataType	string	Science quality, near-real-time or expedited, where stated.
consortiums	string[]	Programmes such as EOSDIS or GEOSS.
granuleCount	integer	Files the archive holds (with includeGranuleCounts).
cloudHosted	boolean	The dataset lives in cloud storage, so its files carry s3:// links.
ongoing	boolean	True when the dataset has no end date — new files keep arriving.
doiUrl, documentationUrls	string, string[]	Citation DOI, user guides and algorithm documents.

Data-file rows (granules)

Field	Type	Meaning
producerGranuleId	string	The file name the producing archive gave — what title carries.
granuleUr	string	The catalog's own title for the file; for some archives an internal id such as LAADS:10066693097.
collectionConceptId, datasetTitle	string	The dataset the file belongs to.
dayNightFlag	string	DAY, NIGHT, BOTH or UNSPECIFIED.
granuleSizeMb	number	File size in megabytes.
downloadUrls	string[]	HTTPS addresses of this file. Links of the whole dataset are never mixed in.
s3Urls	string[]	s3:// addresses, for a job in the archive's own AWS region.
opendapUrl	string	OPeNDAP address, for reading a subset instead of the whole file.
browseUrls, metadataUrls	string[]	Preview images, and the metadata documents the catalog links for the file and for its archive.
needsEarthdataLogin	boolean	A hint read from the URL path (-protected versus -public), not a guarantee.

Both modes: dataCenter, timeStart, timeEnd, boxes, polygons, points, coordinateSystem, onlineAccess, hasBrowse, originalFormat, revisionDate (when the catalog record was last revised, not when the data changed), source.

Marker rows. A short name or concept id the catalog does not know gets one row with rowType: "notFound", found: false, requested, requestedField and a note on what to do — instead of a silent empty result or a wider search. Such a row is written to the dataset, so it is billed like any other row.

With fields set, the row keeps only the columns you named, in that order, with the always-kept columns you did not name in front of them.

Dataset views: Datasets and files found (the overview table), Data files and their links, Place and period covered.

Use it from code / agents

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/yadroo~nasa-earthdata-search/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"mode":"collections","query":"wildfire","withGranulesOnly":true,"maxItems":20}'

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
// Step 1: find the datasets and keep their concept ids.
const found = await client.actor('yadroo/nasa-earthdata-search').call({ query: 'nighttime lights', withGranulesOnly: true, maxItems: 10 });
const datasets = (await client.dataset(found.defaultDatasetId).listItems()).items;
// Step 2: list the files of one of them.
const files = await client.actor('yadroo/nasa-earthdata-search').call({
    mode: 'granules',
    conceptIds: [datasets[0].conceptId],
    temporalFrom: '2026-09-01',
    maxItems: 50,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(files.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])
run = client.actor("yadroo/nasa-earthdata-search").call(run_input={
    "mode": "granules",
    "shortNames": ["MOD11A1"],
    "boundingBox": "70,40,80,50",
    "temporalFrom": "2026-09-01",
    "temporalTo": "2026-09-03",
    "maxItems": 50,
})
items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items

MCP: add https://mcp.apify.com to Claude / Cursor / any MCP client and call the yadroo/nasa-earthdata-search tool with the same JSON input.

The two-step pattern is the one worth knowing: a collections run answers "which dataset", a granules run answers "which files". Store the conceptId, not the short name — a concept id is permanent and never collides, while a short name can be re-versioned.

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.001 per run start + $0.002 per metadata row. A row is any row written to the dataset — a dataset row, a data-file row, or the found: false marker row of a short name or concept id the catalog does not know. There is no free tier of rows: every run pays the start event even if it returns nothing.

Run	Cost
The default run, 25 dataset rows	$0.001 + 25 × $0.002 = $0.051
A file listing, 50 rows	$0.001 + 50 × $0.002 = $0.101
A daily watch task that found 4 new files	$0.001 + 4 × $0.002 = $0.009
The largest run the schema allows, 2000 rows	$0.001 + 2000 × $0.002 = $4.001

maxItems is the real cost control: paging stops as soon as the cap is reached. On top of it, the run respects your Maximum cost per run: when the budget runs out the run stops, keeps every row you already paid for, and ends with "Stopped at your spending limit: N rows delivered". Apify's paid plans apply their usual discount to these prices.

Limits & FAQ

How fast is it? One request to the catalog returns up to 2000 records, so a normal run is one request. Measured in the Apify cloud on 2026-10-07: a 20–25-row run takes 3–10 seconds end to end including the container start, and the largest run the schema allows — 2000 data files of a daily product — took 31 seconds for all 2000 rows. That is about 4000 rows a minute, so nothing in this actor comes close to the default 900-second run timeout. The actor paces itself at one request per second per host regardless.

Does the source rate-limit? Yes, and it publishes no number: it throttles by request signature and answers HTTP 429 with a Retry-After header. The actor waits exactly that long and continues more slowly — a throttle is not a block. Because one request carries up to 2000 records, a normal run never comes close to the limit.

What if a run cannot finish? A run that nears its timeout stops starting new work, keeps every row already read, and ends successfully with "Stopped before the run timeout: N rows saved". Checked in the cloud on 2026-10-07: the same 2000-row input given only 30 seconds returned 1750 rows and that exact status instead of being killed. The spending limit works the same way — "Stopped at your spending limit: N rows delivered". You never lose rows you paid for.

How deep can a file listing go? An ungrouped file query in this catalog stops at its 10 000th match, and maxItems caps a single run at 2000 rows anyway. For more, split the job by time window or by area — the run says so in its status message when it hits the depth limit.

Why can I not search files by keyword? The catalog indexes free text over datasets only, not over single files. That is why granules mode needs shortNames or conceptIds: find the dataset first, then list its files.

Why is there no instrument column on a dataset row? The catalog's compact dataset record leaves the instrument list out. The instruments filter works (the source applies it); what you get back is the platforms column.

Why is the input called "data center" but sent as a provider? Because the catalog's own data_center parameter matches organisation names (PO.DAAC, NASA/GSFC/…), while the dataCenter column of a record holds the provider id (POCLOUD). Wiring the input to the parameter of the same name would return nothing — checked on 2026-10-07 — so the input sends provider, and filter and column always use the same words.

Do the download links work without an account? Many need a free Earthdata Login account; needsEarthdataLogin reads the archive's URL path and says true when they very likely do. It is a hint: the catalog publishes no per-file access flag. This actor never downloads a file, so no account is needed to run it.

Is there a "changed in the last N hours" filter? No, deliberately. The catalog's revision parameters are not something we verified, and filtering after the fetch would mean paying for rows that are then thrown away. Use the honest recipe instead: granules mode, one shortNames value, sort: newestData, onlyNew: true and a small maxItems, on a daily schedule. The memory is kept per actor or task, so two tasks watching two datasets never interfere.

A global dataset matches my small bounding box. Why? The spatial filter is overlap, not containment, and a global footprint overlaps everything. Combine it with processingLevels or providers to narrow the answer.

What is not included? The data files themselves, restricted metadata that needs an Earthdata Login token, and anything outside NASA's Common Metadata Repository. Individual international-partner datasets can carry their own use conditions on the files; those conditions are about the files, which this actor never touches.

An empty result versus an error. A filter the catalog simply has nothing for ends as a successful run with zero rows and a status message saying what was searched. A value the catalog does not know ends differently: a bad short name or concept id becomes a found: false row, and an unknown platform, instrument or data center stops the run with the closest known names — never a silently wider search.

Questions or problems: open an issue on the Issues tab of this actor.

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Made by Yadroo. Sibling actors: nasa-eonet-events, nasa-asteroid-approaches, data-gov-datasets, open-meteo-weather, openalex-works.