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Accessing Planetary Computer data in QGIS

QGIS is a popular open-source desktop GIS application used for mapping, analysis, and visualization of spatial data. While much of the Planetary Computer is designed to support cloud-native workflows, it’s easy to use our data in a traditional desktop clients, like QGIS, as well.

QGIS STAC API Plugin

Since the Planetary Computer metadata API is built on the STAC standard, the easiest way to search for and add data to QGIS is by using the STAC API Browser plugin. Microsoft supported development of this plugin, with our partners Kartoza, to make accessing STAC APIs from QGIS easier.

For a general overview on plugin usage, the official user guide.

Searching for data

Launch the STAC Browser plugin from the Plugin menu or toolbar within the app. Select the “Microsoft Planetary Computer STAC API” option from the pre-loaded list of connections, then click “Fetch collections” to see the list of datasets in the catalog. You can visit the Planetary Computer Data Catalog to see information about each dataset, including specific temporal and spatial coverages.

Select one or many collections in the list, and optionally restrict the search using the filter by date or filter by extent options. If you want to additionally filter on specific dataset attributes (e.g., cloud cover) you can use the Advanced filter to add custom CQL2 or STAC-QL filters. Click the search button to see the results of your query.

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The plugin also allows you to search data from other STAC API providers, and is preloaded with a list of other popular catalogs.

Working with data

Once you’ve identified dataset items of interest, you have three ways of interacting with them:

  1. Add the item footprint to your QGIS workspace. This adds a geojson shape representing the data item extent on the map and includes all of its metadata attributes. Use this option to quickly inspect the data without having to load the full data asset.

  2. Add asset as layer. You can also add the actual data asset, typically a Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF, directly to your QGIS workspace. This does not download the asset locally, but rather efficiently fetches the overview layer for your current zoom layer. Note that assets added added as COG layers are signed using the SAS token mechanism, which expires by default after an hour. You’ll need to re-add the layer, though we’re working on improvements to that workflow in the next version of the plugin. This option may be slower if you’re working with a local QGIS instance.

  3. Download the asset. The plugin also allows you to download the asset directly, so you can work with the file itself. Be sure to set your download directory on the Settings tab to a path located within your home directory, so the data is preserved between launches.

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