A Product ID is the identifier for a given product.

• Product IDs can be found by clicking the info button in the UI, or by checking the product catalog.
• A product ID can optionally contain an exact date and time, formatted as [Product ID]_YYYYMMDD_hhmmss. Full year, month, day, hour, minute, and second are required.
• A product ID can optionally contain an opacity value suffix formatted as [Product ID].opacity. Opacity ranges from 0 (transparent) to 100 (opaque).
• Most API calls support lists of product IDs separated by commas.

Times can be absolute or relative.

• Absolute times are formatted as YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm[:ss]. Full year, month, day, hour, and minute are required; seconds are optional.
• Relative times are formatted as [-]#(dhmst), indicating a (possibly negative) offset from the anchor time. Each of dhmst specifies Days, Hours, Minutes, Seconds, and Timesteps respectively.
• Time ranges are specified as [time start],[time end].

NOTE: Most API calls allow time to be specified using the time keyword with an arbitrary date and time. The preferred, more efficient way to specify time is to use the products keyword form [Product ID]_[YYYYMMDD]_[hhmmss], which requests the exact date and time given without the need to look up the nearest time for each individual request.

• Use the products API to get a list of available times for a given set of products.
• Use the time or latest API to get the nearest available or latest time for a given set of products and nominal time.

See below for examples.

RealEarth uses most recent time matching. When metadata, imagery, or shapes are requested, data for the most recent time is returned, without going past the given time. Each product defines a valid time range for its own data, after which it is considered to be expired and will be ignored. Each animation step consults the API to determine which absolute time to show for each product layer.

Provides metadata about the given products

Reply Formats:

• JSON

Parameters:

• products

  List of product IDs

  product1,product2,...
or:

• search

  String to match in product name and description

Optional:

• timespan

  Time span limiting "times" return values

  [-]#(dhmst) or negative offset from end
• exclude

  List of fields to exclude

Notes:

• Excluding the times field can greatly speed up the request

Examples:

Provides the complete list of available times

Reply Formats:

• JSON

Parameters:

• products

  List of product IDs

  product1,product2,...

Examples:

Provides the nearest recent absolute product time

Reply Formats:

• JSON

Parameters:

• products

  List of product IDs

  product1,product2,...

Optional Parameters:

• time

  Absolute anchor time

  YYYY-MM-DD+hh:mm[:ss]

Notes:

• If time is omitted the most recent time will be returned

Examples:

Provides the latest absolute product time

Reply Formats:

• JSON

Parameters:

• products

  List of product IDs

  product1,product2,...

Examples:

Provides the geographic extents

Reply Formats:

• JSON (default)
• PNG

Parameters:

• products

  List of product IDs

  product1,product2,...

Optional Parameters:

• format

  Output format

  json,image,png

Examples:

Provides access to raster tiles

Reply Formats:

• PNG (default)
• GIF
• JPEG

Parameters:

• products

  List of product IDs with optional opacity suffix

  product1.50,product2.75,...
• x

  Tile pyramid column
• y

  Tile pyramid row
• z

  Tile pyramid zoom

Optional Parameters:

• time

  Absolute time to display

  YYYY-MM-DD+hh:mm[:ss]
• format

  Image format

  png,gif,jpeg

Examples:

Provides access to raster images with arbitrary bounds

Reply Formats:

• PNG (default)
• GIF
• JPEG
• GeoTIFF

Parameters:

• products

  List of product IDs with optional opacity suffix

  product1.50,product2.75,...
• width, height

  Image dimensions in pixels

With either:

• center

  Center latitude and longitude

  latitude,longitude
• zoom

  Zoom level

  0-20
or:

• bounds

  Bounding box latitudes/longitudes as S,W,N,E

  -85,-180,85,180

Optional Parameters:

• time

  Absolute time to display

  YYYY-MM-DD+hh:mm[:ss]
• format

  Image format

  png,gif,jpeg,geotiff

Notes:

• Images created with this API call will be watermarked.

Examples:

Provides legend images

Reply Formats:

• PNG

Parameters:

• products

  List of product IDs

  product1,product2,...

Optional Parameters:

• orientation

  Orientation of multiple legends

  vertical,horizontal

Notes:

• Legend images are 320 pixels wide but may vary in height.

Examples:

Provides access to geometry from products defined by geo-located shapes

Reply Formats:

• GeoJSON

Parameters:

• product[s]

  Single product ID (The plural is accepted for compatibility)

Optional Parameters:

• time

  Absolute time to display

  YYYY-MM-DD+hh:mm[:ss]
• databounds

  Bounding box latitudes as S,W,N,E

Notes:

• Products defined by geo-located shapes can be accessed as images using the image API.

Examples:

Provides raw data values

Reply Formats:

• JSON

Parameters:

• products

  List of product IDs

  product1,product2,...

With either:

• lat

  Latitude
• lon

  Longitude
or:

• id

  Shape ID

Optional Parameters:

• time

  Absolute time to probe

  YYYY-MM-DD+hh:mm[:ss]

Notes:

• Shape ID can be found in the shapes API reply.

Examples:

Provides formatted data values

Reply Formats:

• HTML

Parameters:

• products

  List of product IDs

  product1,product2,...

With either:

• lat

  Latitude
• lon

  Longitude
or:

• id

  Shape ID

Optional Parameters:

• time

  Absolute time to probe

  YYYY-MM-DD+hh:mm[:ss]

Notes:

• Shape ID can be found in the shapes API reply.

Examples: