LAADS Web Service Classic Quick Start Guide

Resource Locations

  • Web Service Description Language (WSDL) URL

    http://modwebsrv.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/axis2/services/MODAPSservices?wsdl

    This XML document describes the Web Service interface, by describing the operations, parameters, and data structures used in the Web Service.

  • Web Service Access Point URL

    http://modwebsrv.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/axis2/services/MODAPSservices

    This is the location of the actual web service that responds to queries.

  • Web Service Namespace URN

    http://modapsws.gsfc.nasa.gov

    This is not an actual location but is the namespace that SOAP clients generally require that you provide them with before making queries.

Workflow Synopsis

  • Typical scenario: search, order, retrieve

    Finding and obtaining data files is generally a three step process: searching, ordering, and then retrieving the files. However, the process will generally require more than three web service calls.

  • Alternate Scenario: search, fetch URLs

    Alternatively, if the files you find (via searching) are already online and available on the download server, and you do not require any additional processing (subsetting, reformatting, etc.), you can directly obtain URLs for those files. You can determine whether the files you seek are online by using the getFileProperties method, which contains a boolean field in the results indicating whether the file is currently online.

Example sequences of web service calls

  • Simple Order (No Post-Processing)


  • Order with Post Processing


  • Simple URL fetching

Code Examples

Order Script

The following script and parameter files allow the user to list, download, and order files using the LAADS Web Service Classic (MWS).

  • order_MWS.pl - script which accepts parameters files to list, download, and order files using the LAADS Web Service Classic (MWS).
  • list_example.txt - parameter file that searches for and lists URLs to MODIS collection 61 1km L1B files over Indonesia for Aug 1, 2008.
  • download_example.txt - parameter file that searches for and downloads MODIS collection 61 1km L1B files over Indonesia for Aug 1, 2008.
  • order_example.txt - parameter file that orders MODIS collection 61 1km L1B files over Indonesia for Aug 1, 2008, subset and mosaicked in geographic lon/lat grid.