SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC)
Overview
SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) is a specification for organizing and sharing geospatial data in a standardized way, enabling easier discovery and access to spatial datasets. STAC provides a common language for describing geospatial assets and their metadata.
Key Concepts
Item is a single spatiotemporal asset (e.g., one satellite scene). Catalog is a collection of Items and child Catalogs. Collection is a set of related Items with shared metadata. Asset is a file associated with an Item (COG, thumbnail, metadata). Extension adds domain-specific metadata fields.
STAC Components
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| STAC Catalog | JSON file organizing Items/Collections |
| STAC Collection | JSON describing a dataset collection |
| STAC Item | JSON describing a single asset |
| STAC API | RESTful API for searching catalogs |
Example Item Structure
{
"type": "Feature",
"stac_version": "1.0.0",
"id": "scene-123",
"geometry": {...},
"bbox": [...],
"properties": {
"datetime": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z"
},
"assets": {
"image": {"href": "s3://bucket/image.tif"}
}
}Appendix
Created: 2025-12-13 | Modified: 2025-12-13