`search_collections`

Pack: nasa-cmr · Endpoint: https://gateway.pipeworx.io/nasa-cmr/mcp

Search NASA’s Common Metadata Repository for Earth-science dataset collections by keyword, platform (satellite/mission), instrument, time range, or bounding box. ~10k collections covering MODIS, Landsat, Sentinel, VIIRS, GPM, and every NASA DAAC. Sorted by usage. Keyless.

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`keyword`	string	no	Free-text keyword, e.g. “aerosol”, “sea surface temperature”, “land cover”.
`platform`	string	no	Platform (satellite/mission) name, e.g. “Terra”, “Landsat-9”, “Sentinel-1A”, “Suomi-NPP”.
`instrument`	string	no	Instrument name, e.g. “MODIS”, “OLI”, “VIIRS”, “ASTER”.
`temporal_start`	string	no	Start of temporal filter, YYYY-MM-DD. Collections overlapping the range match.
`temporal_end`	string	no	End of temporal filter, YYYY-MM-DD.
`bounding_box`	string	no	Spatial filter “minLon,minLat,maxLon,maxLat”, e.g. “-125,32,-114,42” for California.
`limit`	number	no	Max results (default 10, max 25).

Example call

Arguments

{
  "keyword": "sea surface temperature",
  "platform": "Terra",
  "instrument": "MODIS",
  "limit": 10
}

curl

curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/nasa-cmr/mcp \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"search_collections","arguments":{"keyword":"sea surface temperature","platform":"Terra","instrument":"MODIS","limit":10}}}'

TypeScript (@pipeworx/sdk)

import { Pipeworx } from '@pipeworx/sdk';
const pipeworx = new Pipeworx();

const result = await pipeworx.call('search_collections', {
  "keyword": "sea surface temperature",
  "platform": "Terra",
  "instrument": "MODIS",
  "limit": 10
});

More examples

{
  "keyword": "land cover",
  "temporal_start": "2020-01-01",
  "temporal_end": "2023-12-31",
  "bounding_box": "-125,32,-114,42",
  "limit": 5
}

Connect

Add this to your MCP client config, or use one-click install buttons:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nasa-cmr": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/nasa-cmr/mcp"
    }
  }
}

See Getting Started for client-specific install steps.

search_collections