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Accessing Hydrosat Data via STAC API in QGIS

This guide outlines the steps you can take to explore Hydrosat data in QGIS. We'll focus on using the Data Source Manager to authenticate and query the STAC API.

1

Upgrade your QGIS version.

⚠️ To follow the rest of this tutorial, you'll need to be running QGIS version 3.42.0 or newer. (Older versions do not offer native STAC support.)

You can check which version you have by selecting QGIS > About QGIS in the top menu bar.

Your QGIS version is listed on the first line of the "About QGIS" popup window.

If you need to upgrade, you can download the latest version of QGIS at https://qgis.org/download/. Please be sure to select "Regular Version", which includes the latest features, rather than "Long-Term Version", which may be older than v3.42.0.

2

Open the Data Source Manager.

You can find this under the Layer tab in the top menu bar.

3

Initiate a new connection.

Select "STAC" in the left pane of the Data Source Manager. Under Connections, select New.

4

Enter connection and authentication details.

Under Connection Details, enter:

  • The connection name (choose something descriptive, like "Hydrosat STAC API")

  • The connection URL (https://stac.hydrosat.com)

Under Authentication, select "Basic" and enter:

  • Your username

  • Your password

Then, select "Convert to configuration". This makes it easy to submit your credentials as an API header.

You will be redirected to the Configurations pane, where you'll see the configuration you just created. If you'd like to rename it, select the pencil icon, enter a new name (e.g., "Hydrosat STAC API credentials"), and click "Save".

Finally, when you're happy with the connection details you've entered, select "OK".

5

Connect to the API.

With your newly configured configuration selected, you can now click "Connect" in the main Data Source Manager window. After a few seconds, you'll see STAC items begin to appear.

6

Explore the catalog!

You can double-click on any item to see more information about it, including the thumbnail, metadata, and download links (under Assets > URL), in a popup window.

You can add any item to your QGIS project by selecting "Add" in the Data Source Manager. By default, all of the item's assets will be added.

You can search for data that meets specific spatiotemporal requirements by clicking the "Filters" button and defining a spatial extent, date range, and/or list of STAC collections.

The "Download Assets" button in the QGIS Data Source Manager results in a known error. QGIS is implementing a fix for this issue, but it is currently not supported. Until then, you can download data by either:

  1. Opening the asset URL in a web browser. From the Data Source Manager, double click on the scene you're interested in. A window called STAC Object Details will open. Scroll to the Assets section and click on the asset URL.

  2. Exporting the layer you've added to your project as a GeoTIFF. From the Layers panel, right click the layer you'd like to download and select "Export" > "Save As..."

Visualization and Analysis Tips

  • Assign meaningful colormaps to raster layers in the Band Rendering section of the Symbology window.

    • To open the Symbology window, double click on the layer of interest from the Layers panel.

    • We recommend the "Inferno" colormap for rendering thermal imagery.

Inferno cmap

  • Modify contrast enhancement settings in the Min/Max Value Settings section of the Symbology window.

    • The "Cumulative count cut" option allows you to define a percentile-based range for your colormap.

  • Use the Raster Calculator tool for simple operations — like computing NDVI — with raster layers in your project.

  • Export layers in your project by right-clicking the layer name and selecting "Save As".

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