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Last active July 7, 2023 17:49
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stac-value.md

Benefits of STAC

SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) is a community-built specification that aims to standardize how people find and interact with geospatial data.

Below are some of the most valuable features of STAC.

Catalog

If your data is not findable it does not exist. You need to be able to find where it is and know what it is in order to use it. Cataloging data means that:

  • Data is straightforward to find and access
  • Users can easily filter to exactly the time and place they are interested in.
  • Users can inspect characteristics of data before downloading it

Standarization

By expressing metadata in a standardized way STAC makes it easier to:

  • Find FS data in exactly the same way as data from other sources (such as NASA and USGS)
  • Catalog new datasets - since taxonomy is already decided

Open Source

STAC is a community-driven effort and many tools have been built to support use in Python and other languages. This means:

  • No subscription cost
  • Choose which parts of the specification make sense for the your context
  • The ecosystem is constantly improving and FS staff or anyone else can extend it
  • All decisions and code changes are done in the public
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