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CopernicusDataspace

The Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, is an open ecosystem that provides free instant access to a wide range of data and services from the Copernicus Sentinel missions and more on our planet’s land, oceans and atmosphere. This package provides entry points to several APIs allowing users to access the data directly in R.

Installation

At the moment, the package is still only experimental. It can therefore only be installed from GitHub:

remotes::install_github("pepijn-devries/CopernicusDataspace")

Introduction

The Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem offers access to its services through several APIs. This package offers access via the following APIs:

This README shows only essential methods for downloading data. For more detailed information consult the respective vignettes:

Authentication

When actually downloading files from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, you usually need some form of authentication. Examples below use credentials stored as environment variables. For more information about how to effectively authenticate download requests, please see vignette("Authentication").

Downloading Using STAC Catalogue

When you know the STAC identifier (asset_id) and the asset name you wish to download, you can simply use the example shown below. It will often speed you request up if you include the collection id. When you don’t know these details, you should first explore the catalogue. Please see vignette("STAC") for more details on working with the STAC catalogue.

library(CopernicusDataspace)
library(stars) ## For reading and plotting the downloaded file

## Only run this if an S3 secret is specified:
if (dse_has_s3_secret()) {
  
  filename  <- dse_stac_download(
    asset_id   = "Copernicus_DSM_COG_30_S69_00_W062_00_DEM",
    asset      = "data",
    collection = "cop-dem-glo-90-dged-cog",
    tempdir())
  
  tile_stac <- read_stars(filename)
  
  plot(tile_stac, col = hcl.colors(100), axes = TRUE)
  
}

Example of downloading with STAC API

This produces a tile in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica.

Downloading Using OData API 


## Only run this if client info is available:
if (dse_has_client_info()) {
  response <-
    dse_odata_download_path(
    product     = "2f497806-0101-5eea-83fa-c8f68bc56b0c",
    node_path   = paste(
      "DEM1_SAR_DTE_90_20101213T034716_20130408T035028_ADS_000000_5033.DEM",
      "Copernicus_DSM_30_S09_00_E026_00", "DEM",
      "Copernicus_DSM_30_S09_00_E026_00_DEM.dt1", sep = "/"),
    destination = tempdir())
  
  tile_odata <- read_stars(response$body)
  plot(tile_odata, col = terrain.colors(100), axes = TRUE)
}

Example of downloading with OData API

This produces a map of Lake Upemba in Congo.

TODO

Downloading Using SentinelHub

TODO

## Only run this if client info is available:
if (dse_has_client_info()) {
  bounds <- c(5.261, 52.680, 5.319, 52.715)

  ## prepare input data:
  input <-
    dse_sh_prepare_input(
      bounds = bounds,
      time_range = c("2025-06-01 UTC", "2025-07-01 UTC")
    )

  ## prepare ouput format:
  output <- dse_sh_prepare_output(bbox = bounds)

  ## retrieve processing script:
  evalscript <- dse_sh_get_custom_script("/sentinel-2/l2a_optimized/")

  ## destination file:
  fl <- tempfile(fileext = ".tiff")
  
  ## send request and download result:
  dse_sh_process(input, output, evalscript, fl)

  ## read and plot result:
  enkhuizen <- read_stars(fl) |> suppressWarnings()
  plot(enkhuizen, rgb = 1:3, main = "Enkhuizen")
}

Example of downloading with Sentinel Hub API

Function Names

Understanding the naming logic of the functions in this package, will help you navigating through all features, and effictively use them.

Most function names in this package start with the acronym dse (Data Space Ecosystem). This is done to avoid confusion with other Copernicus packages (see below) and unintended masking of other functions.

Exceptions are functions that (intentionally) mask functions from other packages (like req_perform()), and functions that implement generic functions from tidyverse packages (see ?tidy_verbs).

Functions are also grouped to highlight the specific API they support. After the dse acronym, these function names contain a reference to the relevant API (odata, stac and sh (SentinelHub)). If a function name starts with dse but is not followed by a reference to a specific API, it will have a more generic purpose (like for instance authorisation).

More of Copernicus

More R packages for exploring other Copernicus data services:

Code of Conduct

Please note that the CopernicusDataspace project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By contributing to this project, you agree to abide by its terms.