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Quickstart: Get started with data cubes in Microsoft Planetary Computer Pro

Prerequisites

Set up ingestion source

Before you can begin to ingest data cube data, you'll need to set up an Ingestion Source, which will serve as your credentials to access the Blob Storage account where your assets and STAC Items are stored. You can set up an Ingestion Source using Managed Identity or SAS Token.

Create a data cube collection

Once your Ingestion Source is set up, you can create a Collection for your data cube assets. Steps to create a collection can be followed in Create a STAC Collection with Microsoft Planetary Computer Pro using Python.

Ingest data cube assets

The initiation of the ingestion process for data cube data, and other data types, can be followed in Ingestion Overview. As described in Data Cube Overview, however, ingestion is the step in Planetary Computer Pro's data handling that differs for these file types. While GRIB2 data and associated STAC Items are ingested just like any other two-dimensional raster file, NetCDF and HDF5 assets undergo further data enrichment. The generation of Kerchunk Manifests is documented in Data Cube Overview, but what is important to note is that Kerchunk assets will be added to your Blob Storage container alongside the original assets, and an additional cube:variables field are added to the STAC Item JSON. This is important when rendering these data types in the Planetary Computer Pro Explorer.

Configure a data cube collection

Configuration of your data cube collection is another step that will look slightly different from that of other data types. You can follow the steps described in Configure a collection with the Microsoft Planetary Computer Pro web interface to configure your data cube collection, but you'll need to be aware of the following differences when building your Render Configuration:

Render configuration for NetCDF and HDF5 assets

Remembering that a standard Render Configuration argument in JSON format looks like this:

[
  {
    "id": "prK1950-06-30",
    "name": "prK1950-06-30",
    "type": "raster-tile",
    "options": "assets=pr-kerchunk&subdataset_name=pr&rescale=0,0.01&colormap_name=viridis&datetime=1950-06-30",
    "minZoom": 1
  }
]

The options field is where you'll want to utilize the cloud optimized, Kerchunk asset, as opposed to the original asset listed in the STAC Item. You'll also need to include the subdataset_name argument, which is the name of the variable you want to render.

More information about visualizing NetCDF and HDF5 data can be found in the Visualizing assets in Microsoft Planetary Computer Pro.

Render configuration for GRIB2 assets

The options field for the Render Configuration of GRIB2 assets look similar to the previous example, but you won't need to include the subdataset_name argument. This is because GRIB2 data is already optimally structured and referenced via their Index files. The assets argument, in this case, represents the band, or 2D raster layer, you want to render. Below is an example of a GRIB2 Render Configuration:

[ 
 {
    "id": "render-config-1",
    "name": "Mean Zero-Crossing Wave Period",
    "description": "A sample render configuration. Update `options` below.",
    "type": "raster-tile",
    "options": "assets=data&subdataset_bands=1&colormap_name=winter&rescale=0,10",
    "minZoom": 1
 }
]

More information about visualizing GRIB2 data can be found in the Visualizing assets in Microsoft Planetary Computer Pro.

Visualize data cube assets in the Explorer

Once your data cube assets are ingested and configured, you can visualize them in the Planetary Computer Pro Explorer. A step-by-step guide for using the Explorer can be followed in Quickstart: Use the Explorer in Microsoft Planetary Computer Pro.

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