Sourcing satellite data

SIT-FUSE's built in functionality to download satellite data from NASA's Earthdata platform.

Many data types from many instruments/satellites are compatible with SIT-FUSE. NASA's Earthdata is a convenient platform to source data for the detection of HABs.

Before beginning, it is necessary to create an Earthdata account, if you don't already have one. Click here to create an account.

Next, in terminal:

cd SIT_FUSE/src/sit_fuse/automation/
/bin/bash earth_data.sh

This will prompt a username and password for Earthdata. Type them in and click enter.

Next, a list of satellites and respective instruments will appear. To select an option, type in the corresponding number and click enter.

Then you will be prompted to type in a range (start and end date) for the data you want. This will download all files between the two dates, with each file corresponding to a band, if applicable.

For example, SNPP VIIRS has 5 bands in the range we want, namely:

410, 443, 486, 551, 671

These bands can be modified for different purposes by altering the band numbers earth_data.sh

The ones above are just ideal for HAB detection and used as an example.

# Five bands for one day
SNPP_VIIRS.20250623.L3m.DAY.RRS.Rrs_410.4km.NRT.nc
SNPP_VIIRS.20250623.L3m.DAY.RRS.Rrs_443.4km.NRT.nc
SNPP_VIIRS.20250623.L3m.DAY.RRS.Rrs_486.4km.NRT.nc
SNPP_VIIRS.20250623.L3m.DAY.RRS.Rrs_551.4km.NRT.nc
SNPP_VIIRS.20250623.L3m.DAY.RRS.Rrs_671.4km.NRT.nc

While PACE OCI has all bands in one file, which will be extracted later:

# One band for one day
PACE_OCI.20250611.L3m.DAY.RRS.V3_0.Rrs.4km.NRT.nc

Note the difference in the file naming convention of the two instruments. This will be important later.

SIT-FUSE clustered output from NOAA-20 VIIRS

The images above demonstrate the applicability of SIT-FUSE on many different instruments.

Click here to access Earthdata's website.

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