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.

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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.

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NOAA-20

SIT-FUSE clustered output from NOAA-20 VIIRS

NOAA-21

SNPP

S3A

AQUA

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

Click here to access Earthdata's website.