Time series

Working with time series

Processing API uses a timeRange parameter, where a user can select from-to dates. When such a request is ran, only one image is returned. timeRange is used to specify the scenes that are going to be considered for mosaicking (for example all the scenes from April 1 to June 1). Which one will be chosen for the output depends on the mosaicking type and order specified. If the user specified SIMPLE mosaicking order to be mostRecent, the first image considered for mosaicking would be the most recent image available from April 1 to June 1. If a user selected a mosaicking type TILE, and requested second samples (sample[1]), the samples of the second available scene in the specified time range would be returned. Learn more about mosaicking here and mosaicking orders here.

If you would like to return all the scenes in a given time range, the recommended approach is to first search for all the available scenes using our Catalog service API, which you can use to view detailed geospatial information, such as the acquisition date and time, for each of the available scenes of your specified BBOX, collection and time range. You can control your Catalog search by specifying fields, limits and other properties. See the Catalog API examples to learn how to do so. It's also possible to search the available scenes using the OGC WFS request, which might be a bit easier to use, but gives you much less search control. See a WFS request example here.

When you have a list of the available scenes, you can then request each by using a separate Processing API call. To do so, limit time-range to only allow for the desired time frame, which matches the acquisition time of your scene.