# NASA GIBS and Worldview

Over a thousand map layers from NASA satellites, ready to use as images: from the daily true-colour view to night lights, fires and snow.

- Publisher: NASA
- Area: World · Finest detail: 250 – 750 metres
- Period: 2000 – heden · Refreshed: daily
- Access: Open · Licence: Vrij gebruik (NASA)
- Join keys: datum, coördinaten
- Status: ok (2026-10-15)
- URL: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/engage/open-data-services-software/earthdata-developer-portal/gibs-api

## What can you do with it?
- **Yesterday's weather from space.** Fetch the true-colour image for a day and see where the clouds were.
- **The Netherlands at night.** Black Marble shows where people live and work, and how brightly the Westland greenhouses glow.
- **A year-long animation.** Fetch 365 images of the same area and make a video: snow, green and brown alternate.

## How to process it
1. **Choose a layer.** Browse Worldview and copy the layer name, such as VIIRS_SNPP_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor.
2. **Request a window.** WMS GetMap with a bounding box, size and date returns one image.
3. **Choose the projection.** EPSG:3857 fits web maps; EPSG:4326 stretches the Netherlands horizontally.

## Interesting combinations
- How much light per resident? → [cbs-kwb](http://localhost:3471/en/bron/cbs-kwb.md) via coördinaten → buurt. Average night-light values per municipality and divide by residents. Greenhouses and industry stand out.

## Similar sources
- [copernicus-sentinel2](http://localhost:3471/en/bron/copernicus-sentinel2.md): Much sharper (10 m), but not daily and without ready-made images.
- [nasa-firms](http://localhost:3471/en/bron/nasa-firms.md): Only fires and hotspots, as points.

## What to watch out for
- **Pictures, not measurements.** GIBS serves ready-made images. For analysis you need the raw data from NASA Earthdata, with a free account.
- **Cities yes, streets no.** A pixel is 250 to 750 metres. For street level: Sentinel-2.
- **Clouds.** The Netherlands is often cloudy. Pick a date and check the image first.

## How to fetch it
```bash
curl -o nl.jpg "https://gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov/wms/epsg4326/best/wms.cgi?SERVICE=WMS&REQUEST=GetMap&VERSION=1.3.0&LAYERS=VIIRS_SNPP_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor&CRS=EPSG:4326&BBOX=50.7,3.2,53.6,7.3&WIDTH=800&HEIGHT=600&FORMAT=image/jpeg&TIME=2025-04-12"
```