Open Source Datasets
Open source data has transformed the field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS), democratizing access to geographic and spatial information. These freely available datasets span diverse themes—ranging from land use and transportation to environmental parameters—and serve as critical resources for a wide variety of applications in research, planning, and decision-making. Below is a curated list of prominent open data sources that have become indispensable in the GIS and RS community:
WorldClim
About WorldClim is a global platform offering high-resolution climate data, including long-term averages of temperature and precipitation. It’s widely used in mapping, spatial modeling, and research in biodiversity, agriculture, and climate studies.
Weblink https://www.worldclim.org
Data Coverage WorldClim offers globally available, high-resolution climate and weather data across multiple spatial scales, supporting detailed environmental analysis and modeling.
Data Format The data is available in GeoTIFF and NetCDF formats, with spatial resolutions ranging from ~1 km² to ~340 km².
NASA Power
About The NASA POWER (NASA Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resources) Project provides solar and meteorological datasets derived from NASA research to support a range of applications, including renewable energy development, building energy efficiency, and agricultural planning.
Weblink https://power.larc.nasa.gov
Data Coverage NASA POWER provides global (land and ocean) solar and meteorological data from 1981 to the present at resolutions of 0.5° (~50 km) and 0.125° (~14 km). It supports single points, regional extents (up to 10°×10°), and global grids. Temporal resolutions include hourly, daily, monthly, annual, and 20-year climatology.
Data Format Users can download data in various formats such as CSV for spreadsheets, GeoJSON for GIS applications, and ASCII text. Scientific users can opt for NetCDF for multidimensional analysis. ICASA format is also available for agroclimatology modeling.
Copernicus Climate Change Service
About The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), managed by ECMWF for the EU, provides free, authoritative climate data and tools to support climate policies, offering user support and training.
Weblink https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/
Data Coverage C3S provides a wide range of climate datasets, including reanalysis (ERA5 series), satellite observations, climate projections (CMIP5/6, CORDEX), and sectoral indicators. These span from the early 1900s to the present, with projections extending to 2100 A.D. Datasets support various applications like agriculture, energy, and soil monitoring.
Data Format Data is available in NetCDF, CSV, GRIB, and GeoTIFF formats depending on the dataset type. Reanalysis, projections, and sectoral data are mostly in NetCDF and CSV, while satellite data may also come in GeoTIFF.
The Crop Monitor: A Geoglam Initiative
About The Crop Monitors offer open, timely, and science-based global crop condition assessments with a focus on wheat, maize, rice, and soybeans. In 2022, GEOGLAM introduced the Global Crop Monitor report. This enhanced report expanded country coverage and provides more detailed crop condition and climate forecasts.
Weblink https://www.cropmonitor.org/
Data Coverage Global coverage of over 97% of croplands, focusing on wheat, maize, rice, and soybeans. Includes major producers (G20 countries) and vulnerable regions in Africa, Central Asia, and Latin America.
Data Format Reports are available in downloadable PDFs. Earth Observation data is accessible through interactive visualization tools and downloadable format
Hydrosheds
About Global hydrographic dataset initiative by WWF-US (2006) supporting hydro-ecological research and freshwater management. Provides river networks, catchment boundaries, lakes, and hydro-environmental data, standardized across scales.
Weblink: https://www.hydrosheds.org/
Data Coverage Global land surface coverage except Antarctica and regions above 60°N (using coarser data in those areas).
Data Format Raster GeoTIFF (DEM, flow data); Vector Shapefile and Geodatabase (HydroBASINS, HydroRIVERS, HydroLAKES, HydroATLAS, HydroWASTE, GloRiC); CSV/PDF (LakeTEMP).
NASA Earthdata Search
About NASA Earthdata Search is a centralized platform by EOSDIS for discovering, visualizing, and downloading Earth science data. It provides access to 70+ petabytes of data from satellites (e.g., MODIS, VIIRS, Landsat, ICESat-2, SMAP), airborne missions, field measurements, and models. The platform supports spatial filtering, subsetting, time series extraction, and bulk downloads, and is integrated with cloud tools like Giovanni, AppEEARS, and Worldview. A free NASA Earthdata login is required.
Weblink https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/
Data coverage NASA Earthdata offers global datasets across Earth systems—land, atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere—with spatial resolutions from ~10m (ICESat-2) to 1km (MODIS/VIIRS). Key parameters include vegetation, soil moisture, aerosols, greenhouse gases, sea surface temperature, and real-time hazards. Temporal coverage spans from 1972 (Landsat) to the present, with daily to seasonal frequencies and near-real-time updates.
Data Format NASA Earthdata supports multiple formats like HDF, NetCDF, and GeoTIFF for scientific and geospatial analysis, covering datasets from MODIS, MERRA-2, and Landsat. Shapefiles, CSVs, and KMLs are provided for vector, tabular, and visualization needs, including socioeconomic and real-time data. Access is available via APIs, web services (WMS, OPeNDAP), and cloud platforms like AWS S3 for streamlined, scalable data use.
The ESA
About The ESA Climate Office, based in the UK, leads ESA’s climate efforts by providing satellite-based data through the Climate Change Initiative (CCI), which develops key datasets for 27 of 55 Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) across atmosphere, ocean, and land. It supports climate research and modeling, collaborates with CMUG, EUMETSAT, and Copernicus C3S.
Weblink https://climate.esa.int/en/about-us-new/esa-climate-office/
Data Coverage The ESA datasets include data on aerosols, greenhouse gases, sea surface temperature, soil moisture, ice sheets, and more. With no regional restrictions, the CCI supports international assessments and advances climate science at a global scale.
Data Format The ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) datasets are available in formats including NetCDF (for multi-dimensional climate and atmospheric data), GeoTIFF (for raster spatial data like land cover or sea surface temperature), HDF (for large, complex datasets), and ASCII or CSV (for simpler tabular data and summaries)
Global Surface Water Explorer (GSWE)
About The Global Surface Water Explorer (GSWE), developed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre under the Copernicus Programme, offers free global data on surface water changes using Landsat satellite images. It supports uses in water management, climate research, ecosystem monitoring, and disaster planning. The dataset is used by scientists, policymakers, and environmental professionals.
Weblink https://global-surface-water.appspot.com/download
Data Coverage The Global Surface Water Explorer covers global terrestrial surfaces excluding permanent ice and snow, including inland water bodies, coastal waters, and floodplains, at a 30-meter resolution across all continents and major watersheds. It provides multiple thematic layers—Occurrence, Change, Seasonality, Recurrence, Transitions, and Maximum Extent—capturing spatial and temporal dynamics of surface water based on 4.7 million Landsat images processed through automated algorithms. The dataset spans 37 years (1984–2021), divided into two epochs (1984–1999 and 2000–2021), with monthly and yearly data accessible via Google Earth Engine.
Data Format The Global Surface Water Explorer data is available as GeoTIFF raster tiles (10°x10°) for direct download via the website or FTP, and can also be accessed on Google Earth Engine as “JRC/GSW1_4_GlobalSurfaceWater” for cloud-based analysis. An interactive Web Map Viewer allows users to visualize the data, though it doesn’t support direct analysis. The dataset is fully compatible with QGIS, ArcGIS, and other geospatial tools, with options for bulk download using Python scripts available on the JRC website or GitHub.
Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD)
About The Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD), developed by WWF and the University of Kassel, provides global coverage of lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and wetlands, suitable for environmental and hydrological studies.
Weblink https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/global-lakes-and-wetlands-database
Data Coverage The Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD) is suitable for environmental and hydrological studies at continental to global scales. It includes three levels: GLWD-1 (large lakes and reservoirs), GLWD-2 (about 250,000 smaller water bodies), and GLWD-3 (a 30-arc-second raster map combining all water types with wetland extent and type). The data is freely available for non-commercial scientific, educational, and conservation use.
Data Format The GLWD datasets are freely available for non-commercial scientific, educational, and conservation use in formats compatible with most GIS software like QGIS and ArcGIS. GLWD-1 and GLWD-2 are provided as ESRI Shapefiles (.shp) containing vector polygons and attributes for large and small water bodies, including lakes, reservoirs, and rivers. GLWD-3 offers a 30-arc-second resolution raster grid in GeoTIFF and/or ESRI Grid format, classifying wetland types and open water.
Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI)
About The SPEI website serves as a comprehensive platform for accessing and analyzing drought-related climate data using the Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). It offers global drought monitoring tools, including real-time drought maps.
Weblink: https://spei.csic.es/index.html
Data Coverage It offers data at 1º spatial resolution and a historical global dataset gridded at 0.5º resolution covering the period from 1901 to the present. The site provides downloadable data for specific locations or the entire dataset, along with the SPEI R package to help users compute and analyze SPEI time series.
Data Format The Global SPEI database (SPEIbase) provides drought data in NetCDF (.nc) and GeoTIFF (.tif) formats. NetCDF is used for multidimensional climate data, while GeoTIFF supports spatial visualization and analysis in GIS.
NASA Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)
About The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, a joint project by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), aims to provide comprehensive and accurate global measurements of rain and snow. It supports a wide range of applications, including water resource management, agriculture, and disaster preparedness worldwide.
Weblink https://gpm.nasa.gov/data
Data Coverage The NASA GPM mission offers global precipitation data coverage between 60°N and 60°S. By collecting data every 30 minutes, GPM helps improve weather forecasting, monitor extreme events, and advance climate research. Core datasets include IMERG, which provides 30-minute, daily, and monthly precipitation estimates on a 0.1° grid, and DPR, which delivers 3D profiles of rain and snow using Ku- and Ka-band radar. Additional data from the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) and supporting ancillary datasets enable detailed analysis of precipitation patterns, storm structures, and long-term climatology.
Data Format Data formats include HDF5, NetCDF, GeoTIFF, and OPeNDAP, suitable for various analysis and visualization tools.
The Global Drought Observatory (GDO)
About It is operated by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) under the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS). It provides global, real-time and historical drought monitoring and early warning. It integrates satellite data, ground observations, and model outputs to generate key drought indicators such as the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Vegetation Health Index (VHI), Soil Moisture Anomalies, and the Combined Drought Indicator (CDI). The GDO includes an interactive tool called the Tumbo Map, which enables users to visualize drought indicators, animate time series, and download data.
Weblink https://drought.emergency.copernicus.eu/tumbo/gdo/map/
Data Coverage Offers comprehensive drought monitoring across the globe, with a focus on regions vulnerable to drought conditions. Data is available in 10-day (dekadal) and monthly intervals. Long-term historical records are available from 2000 onwards.
Data Format The drought data is available as gridded raster data derived from satellite observations, reanalysis datasets like ERA5, and model simulations. It can be downloaded in multiple formats including GeoTIFF for spatial GIS analysis, as well as CSV, JSON, and NetCDF for tabular and scientific applications. Each dataset includes detailed metadata and documentation accessible via the EU Science Hub.
The NASA SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive)
About The mission delivers global soil moisture and freeze/thaw state data at high spatial and temporal resolutions. These products are derived from both radar (active) and radiometer (passive) instruments, supporting applications in hydrology, agriculture, weather forecasting, and climate science since 2015.
Weblink https://smap.jpl.nasa.gov/
Data Coverage It provides near-global coverage every 2 to 3 days, with higher revisit frequency (about every 2 days) in high-latitude regions above 45°N. The data spans diverse environments and is available at spatial resolutions ranging from 1 km to 36 km, with temporal resolutions including daily, 3-hourly, and monthly. These datasets support both current monitoring and long-term climate studies
Data Format The data is primarily available in HDF5 format, which supports complex scientific datasets with detailed metadata. Some products are also provided in GeoTIFF format for easier use in GIS applications.
ISRIC – World Soil Information
About It is a global foundation based in the Netherlands since 1966, dedicated to collecting, managing, and sharing soil data to support sustainable land management. Its key resources include the World Soil Information Service (WoSIS), SoilGrids digital soil maps, and the World Soil Museum. ISRIC works internationally to promote sustainable land use and builds global capacity in soil data management.
Weblink https://www.isric.org/
Data Coverage ISRIC provides global soil data through platforms like SoilGrids, which uses machine learning to predict key soil properties at 250m resolution, and WoSIS, which offers quality-assessed soil profile data from around the world. Additional datasets include gridded and polygon maps such as the FAO Soil Map and HWSD. The centralized ISRIC portal offers access to SoilGrids, WoSIS, WISE, and SOTER, supporting research and sustainable land management. Data is regularly updated, with some snapshots like WoSIS 2023 available for reference.
Data Format ISRIC provides SoilGrids data in formats like WMS, WCS, WebDAV (VRT), and through Google Earth Engine (GEE). WoSIS soil profile data is available as TSV, GeoPackage, and WFS. The Soil Data Hub supports multiple formats, including CSV, GeoTIFF, VRT, GPKG, and offers API access, while geographic databases use standard raster and vector GIS formats.
The Global Dynamic Land Cover
About Part of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, this dataset provides annual global land cover maps at three classification levels, allowing for detailed and flexible analysis. It also includes fraction maps that estimate the proportional coverage of land components like vegetation and ground cover. The dataset supports diverse applications including forest and crop monitoring, biodiversity conservation, climate modeling, and urban planning.
Weblink https://land.copernicus.eu/en/products/global-dynamic-land-cover
Data Coverage The Global Dynamic Land Cover dataset offers global terrestrial coverage, excluding only permanent ice and snow regions like Antarctica and Greenland. It provides annual land cover maps from 2015 to 2019, supporting both short-term monitoring and long-term trend analysis. The dataset enables consistent land cover classification at multiple levels using satellite imagery and is designed for applications ranging from local to global scales.
Data Format The dataset is available as internally compressed GeoTIFF raster files, organized in 20° x 20° tiles for efficient downloading. Each file contains a single data layer, either a classification map or a fraction map. Access is supported through CLMS Download API, Google Earth Engine, Zenodo, and Open Search API for programmatic retrieval.
Global Surface Air Temperatures and Precipitation Anomalies
About This dataset includes latest analysis of global surface air temperature and precipitation anomalies and extremes. It utilizes data from NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) for temperature and Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG) for rainfall. The dataset highlights climate anomalies and supports monthly global assessments.
Weblink https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Data Coverage Global, with emphasis on monthly anomalies and extremes in surface air temperature and precipitation.
Data Format Available via GES DISC in standard scientific formats including NetCDF, HDF, and GeoTIFF (format depends on the specific data product accessed via AIRS and IMERG collections)
Open Street Map
About OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free, community-driven global mapping project offering editable geographic data such as streets, buildings, natural features, and points of interest. Continuously updated by volunteers worldwide, OSM data is available under the Open Database License (ODbL), allowing free personal, educational, or commercial use with attribution and share-alike terms.
Weblink https://www.openstreetmap.org
Data Coverage OpenStreetMap offers comprehensive global coverage, including roads, trails, cafés, railway stations, natural features, buildings, administrative boundaries, land use, waterways, and points of interest. Data is contributed to and maintained by a global community of mappers and is continuously updated in near real-time. Historical data is also available through archives and third-party services.
Data Format OpenStreetMap data is available in several formats to suit different needs. These include OSM XML, which is the standard and human-readable format, and PBF, a compact binary format ideal for handling large datasets efficiently. GeoJSON is commonly used for web mapping and visualization, while Shapefiles can be generated through conversion for compatibility with most GIS software. Data can also be exported in MBTiles for offline map use, CSV for tabular analysis, and imported into PostGIS databases for advanced spatial querying.
Bhuvan /BhooNidhi Portal - NRSC
About The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) under ISRO provides satellite data and remote sensing services across India, enabling applications in natural resource management, urban planning, disaster response, and public access to geospatial data through platforms like Bhuvan.
Weblink https://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in /https://bhoonidhi.nrsc.gov.in
Data Coverage NRSC offers satellite data covering pan-India and selected global regions, with temporal datasets ranging from the 1980s to near real-time updates, supporting monitoring, change detection, and decision-making in sectors such as agriculture, forestry, water, and urban development.
Data Format Satellite data is available in user-friendly formats such as GeoTIFF for raster GIS use, NITF for defense applications, HDF5 for large-scale scientific data, JPEG2000 for compressed imagery, and NetCDF for multidimensional meteorological and oceanographic dat.
Annual LULC Atlas of India,NRSC–ISRO
About The Annual Land Use Land Cover (LULC) Atlas of India is prepared by NRSC, ISRO, using 56-meter resolution satellite data to map and monitor changes in land use including urban expansion, agriculture, forests, water bodies, and wastelands, supporting sustainable land management and policy planning.
Weblink https://www.nrsc.gov.in/Atlas_LULC
Data Coverage It provides pan-India annual coverage with thematic LULC maps that include built-up areas, Kharif and Rabi crop zones, forests and vegetation types, water bodies, wastelands, fallow lands, and crop sown area maps at monthly and seasonal scales. Historical data is available from 2005–06 to 2022–23 with ongoing yearly updates.
Data Format The LULC Atlas is available in PDF format for download and reference.
India Water Resources Information System (India-WRIS)
About India WRIS is a centralized geospatial platform established by the Ministry of Jal Shakti to provide integrated water resources information. Developed under the National Hydrology Project, it offers over 130 GIS layers encompassing hydrological, groundwater, infrastructure, and meteorological data. The portal is designed to support data access, analysis, and sharing for water management and planning across India using GIS and remote sensing technologies.
Weblink https://indiawris.gov.in/
Data Coverage The portal covers all states and union territories of India, mapping major and minor river basins, rivers, reservoirs, canals, dams, lakes, and groundwater aquifers. It includes hydrological data like river flow, sediment load, groundwater levels and quality, water quality parameters, rainfall and weather data, irrigation infrastructure, and satellite-derived water body and flood assessments. It also provides historical, real-time, and seasonal datasets dating back to the 1970s, with updates ranging from hourly to quarterly depending on the data type.
Data Format Data is available in GIS formats such as shapefiles, GeoJSON, and KML; tabular formats like CSV and Excel; raster images including GeoTIFF; as well as through APIs, interactive maps, and downloadable reports in PDF and HTML.
National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF)
About The National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, specializes in medium-range weather prediction, atmospheric modeling, and climate research. Its Reanalysis Data Services (RDS) offer atmospheric datasets created by assimilating historical weather observations into numerical models, providing consistent and comprehensive datasets for climate monitoring, model development, forecasting improvements, and impact assessments.
Weblink https://nwp.ncmrwf.gov.in/reanalysis
Data Coverage NCMRWF datasets span global and regional domains, with a focus on India. They cover surface and upper atmospheric levels and include reanalysis and forecast products. The datasets include atmospheric variables like wind components, temperature, pressure, humidity, precipitation, and geopotential height, supporting diverse climate and weather applications.
Data Format Data is primarily available in GRIB2 format, suitable for efficient storage and processing in meteorological applications. NetCDF format is also offered for compatibility with scientific analysis tools such as Python and MATLAB. Historical reanalysis data is available from 1979 onward, and near real-time and forecast data is provided from 2009, with temporal resolutions ranging from hourly to 6-hourly. Users can access data via an online portal that allows dataset selection and automated shell-script generation for downloads, with detailed documentation and technical support provided.
National Information System for Climate and Environment Studies (NICES)
About NICES is a national initiative by ISRO aimed at generating and disseminating long-term Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) and geophysical data products derived from Earth Observation satellites. The initiative supports climate change impact assessments and mitigation planning through consistent and scientifically validated satellite data.
Data Coverage The platform provides data products at the pan-India level, covering four key domains: Atmosphere, Ocean, Terrestrial, and Cryosphere. Atmospheric data includes variables such as surface air temperature, wind speed, water vapor, greenhouse gases, ozone, and aerosols. Oceanic data includes sea surface temperature, salinity, sea level, ocean currents, and chlorophyll concentration. Terrestrial datasets cover land use and land cover, soil moisture, biomass, snow cover, and fire distribution. Cryosphere data includes snow fraction, glacier extent, permafrost, and ice sheets.
Data Format NICES provides data from the year 2000 to the present, with temporal resolutions that vary by parameter, including daily, monthly, and yearly scales. The data is available in multiple formats including GeoTIFF, Shapefile, NetCDF, CSV, and KML, making it accessible and compatible with a wide range of GIS and scientific analysis tools.