NASAaccess is a software application in the form of a R package, a conda package, and a web application. NASAaccess software can generate gridded ascii tables of climate CMIP5, CMIP6, and weather data (GPM, TRMM, GLDAS) needed to drive various hydrological models (e.g., SWAT, VIC, RHESSys, …etc.).
The NASAaccess R package is an open source software package under NASA Open Source Agreement v1.3 and can be downloaded from GitHub at https://github.com/nasa/NASAaccess.
NASAaccess is also available as a Tethys web-based application that can be installed on servers for multiple usage suited for agencies and centers. Full details on installing the web-based version of NASAaccess at local servers can be found at Here.
NASAaccess conda package can be installed directly from Anaconda by
searching for r-nasaaccess.
On a local machine the user should have installed the following programs as well as setting up a user account. The list below gives a summary of what is needed to be done prior to work with NASAaccess software on any local machine:
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Installing Rstudio software (OPTIONAL)
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NASAaccess R package needs a user registration access with Earthdata. Users should set up a registration account(s) with Earthdata login as well as well as authorizing NASA GES DISC data access. Please refer to https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/data-access for further details.
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After registration with Earthdata NASAaccess software package users should create a reference file (netrc) with Earthdata credentials stored in it to streamline the retrieval access to NASA servers.
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Creating the .netrc file at the user machine Home directory and storing the user NASA GES DISC logging information in it is needed to execute the NASAaccess package commands. Accessing data at NASA servers is further explained at Here.
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For Windows users the NASA GES DISC logging information should be saved in a file _netrc beside the .netrc file explained above.
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Installing curl software . Since Mac users have curl as part of macOS build, Windows users should make sure that their local machines build have curl installed properly.
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Checking if you can run curl from your command prompt. Type
curl --helpand you should see the help pages for the curl program once everything is defined correctly. -
Within Rstudio or R terminal run the following commands to install NASAaccess:
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library(devtools) -
install_github("nasa/NASAaccess", build_vignettes = TRUE) -
library(NASAaccess)
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Within the Rstudio help tab the user can verify that the package has been installed and browse the help pages of the various functions of NASAaccess.
Yes!
Software users are encouraged to visit (https://imohamme.github.io/NASAaccess/) to learn more on NASAaccess functionality and capabilities.
Mohammed, I. N., 2019, NASAaccess: Downloading and reformatting tool for NASA earth observation data products [software]. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. https://github.com/nasa/NASAaccess