Help for package nasapower

Type:

Package

Title:

NASA POWER API Client

Version:

4.3.0

Description:

An API client for NASA POWER global meteorology, surface solar energy and climatology data API. POWER (Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resources) data are freely available for download with varying spatial resolutions dependent on the original data and with several temporal resolutions depending on the POWER parameter and community. This work is funded through the NASA Earth Science Directorate Applied Science Program. For more on the data themselves, the methodologies used in creating, a web-based data viewer and web access, please see https://power.larc.nasa.gov/.

License:

MIT + file LICENSE

URL:

https://codeberg.org/ropensci/nasapower, https://docs.ropensci.org/nasapower/

BugReports:

https://codeberg.org/ropensci/nasapower/issues

Depends:

R (≥ 4.1.0)

Imports:

cli, crul, lubridate, readr, rlang, tibble (≥ 3.0.2), yyjsonr

Suggests:

knitr, purrr, rmarkdown, spelling, testthat (≥ 3.0.0), vcr (≥ 0.6.0), webmockr, withr

VignetteBuilder:

knitr

Config/Needs/build:

moodymudskipper/devtag

Config/Needs/documentation:

roxylint

Config/roxygen2/version:

8.0.0

Config/roxylint:

list(linters = roxylint::tidy)

Config/testthat/edition:

Config/testthat/parallel:

true

Encoding:

UTF-8

Language:

en-US

NeedsCompilation:

Repository:

CRAN

X-schema.org-applicationCategory:

Tools

X-schema.org-isPartOf:

https://ropensci.org

X-schema.org-keywords:

NASA, meteorological-data, weather, global, weather, weather-data, meteorology, NASA-POWER, agroclimatology, earth-science, data-access, climate-data

Packaged:

2026-06-02 06:27:12 UTC; 283204f

Author:

Adam H. Sparks

[aut, cre], Scott Chamberlain

[rev] (Scott Chamberlain reviewed nasapower for rOpenSci, see <https://github.com/ropensci/software-review/issues/155>.), Hazel Kavili [rev] (Hazel Kavili reviewed nasapower for rOpenSci, see <https://github.com/ropensci/software-review/issues/155>.), Alison Boyer [rev] (Alison Boyer reviewed nasapower for rOpenSci, see <https://github.com/ropensci/software-review/issues/155>.), Fernando Miguez

[ctb] (Fernando Miguez provided assistance in identifying improper missing value handling in the POWER data, see <https://github.com/femiguez/apsimx/pull/26>.), Maëlle Salmon

[ctb] (Maëlle Salmon contributed a patch to fix issues with using the R package, 'vcr', for testing the API queries, see <https://github.com/ropensci/nasapower/pull/64>.), Phillip D. Alderman

[ctb] (Phillip Alderman contributed a patch to fix an issue with, 'The `file` argument of `vroom()` must use `I()` for literal data as of vroom 1.5.0.', see <https://github.com/ropensci/nasapower/pull/67>.), Aleksandar Blagotić [ctb, cph] (Author of the CRAN package 'rapportools', from which the '.is_boolean()' was derived.), Gergely Daróczi [ctb, cph] (Author of the CRAN package 'rapportools', from which the '.is_boolean()' was derived.), Curtin University

[cph] (http://www.curtin.edu.au/)

Maintainer:

Adam H. Sparks <adamhsparks@gmail.com>

Date/Publication:

2026-06-02 07:50:30 UTC

nasapower: NASA POWER API Client

Description

Author(s)

Maintainer: Adam H. Sparks adamhsparks@gmail.com (ORCID)

Authors:

Adam H. Sparks adamhsparks@gmail.com (ORCID)

Other contributors:

Scott Chamberlain myrmecocystus@gmail.com (ORCID) (Scott Chamberlain reviewed nasapower for rOpenSci, see <https://github.com/ropensci/software-review/issues/155>.) [reviewer]
Hazel Kavili (Hazel Kavili reviewed nasapower for rOpenSci, see <https://github.com/ropensci/software-review/issues/155>.) [reviewer]
Alison Boyer (Alison Boyer reviewed nasapower for rOpenSci, see <https://github.com/ropensci/software-review/issues/155>.) [reviewer]
Fernando Miguez femiguez@iastate.edu (ORCID) (Fernando Miguez provided assistance in identifying improper missing value handling in the POWER data, see <https://github.com/femiguez/apsimx/pull/26>.) [contributor]
Maëlle Salmon (ORCID) (Maëlle Salmon contributed a patch to fix issues with using the R package, 'vcr', for testing the API queries, see <https://github.com/ropensci/nasapower/pull/64>.) [contributor]
Phillip D. Alderman phillip.alderman@okstate.edu (ORCID) (Phillip Alderman contributed a patch to fix an issue with, 'The 'file' argument of 'vroom()' must use 'I()' for literal data as of vroom 1.5.0.', see <https://github.com/ropensci/nasapower/pull/67>.) [contributor]
Aleksandar Blagotić alex@rapporter.net (Author of the CRAN package 'rapportools', from which the '.is_boolean()' was derived.) [contributor, copyright holder]
Gergely Daróczi daroczig@rapporter.net (Author of the CRAN package 'rapportools', from which the '.is_boolean()' was derived.) [contributor, copyright holder]
Curtin University (ROR) (http://www.curtin.edu.au/) [copyright holder]

Get NASA POWER data from the POWER API

Description

Get POWER global meteorology and surface solar energy climatology data and return a tidy data frame tibble object. All options offered by the official POWER API are supported. Requests are formed to submit one request per point. There is no need to make synchronous requests for multiple parameters for a single point or regional request. See section on “Rate Limiting” for more.

Usage

get_power(
  community,
  pars,
  lonlat,
  temporal_api = "daily",
  dates = NULL,
  site_elevation = NULL,
  wind_elevation = NULL,
  wind_surface = NULL,
  time_standard = "LST"
)

Arguments

community

A case-insensitive character vector providing community name: “AG”, “RE” or “SB”. See argument details for more.

pars

case-insensitive character vector of solar, meteorological or climatology parameters to download. When requesting a single point of x, y coordinates, a maximum of twenty (20) pars can be specified at one time, for “daily”, “monthly” and “climatology” temporal_apis. If the temporal_api is specified as “hourly” only 15 pars can be specified in a single query. See temporal_api for more. These values are checked internally for validity before sending the query to the POWER API.

lonlat

A numeric vector of geographic coordinates for a cell or region entered as x, y (longitude, latitude) coordinates. See argument details for more.

temporal_api

A case-insensitive character vector providing the temporal API end-point for data being queried, supported values are “hourly”, “daily”, “monthly” or “climatology”. Defaults to “daily”. See argument details for more.

dates

A character vector of start and end dates in that order,
e.g., dates = c("1983-01-01", "2017-12-31"). Not used when
temporal_api is set to “climatology”. See argument details for more.

site_elevation

A user-supplied value for elevation at a single point in metres. If provided this will return a corrected atmospheric pressure value adjusted to the elevation provided. Only used with lonlat as a single point of x, y coordinates, not for use with “global” or with a regional request.

wind_elevation

A user-supplied value for elevation at a single point in metres. Wind elevation values are required to be between 10 and 300 metres. Only used with lonlat as a single point of x, y coordinates, not for use with “global” or with a regional request. If this parameter is provided, the wind_surface parameter is required with the request, see https://power.larc.nasa.gov/docs/methodology/meteorology/wind/.

wind_surface

A user-supplied wind surface for which the corrected wind-speed is to be supplied. See wind-surface section for more detail.

time_standard

POWER provides two different time standards.

Universal Time Coordinated (UTC): is the standard time- measure that used by the world.
Local Solar Time (LST): A 15 degree swath that represents solar noon at the middle longitude of the swath. Defaults to LST.

Value

A data frame as a POWER.Info class, an extension of the tibble, object of POWER data including location, dates (not including “climatology”) and requested parameters; a decorative header of metadata is included in this object.

Argument details for “community”

There are three valid values, one must be supplied. This will affect the units of the parameter and the temporal display of time series data.

ag: Provides access to the Agroclimatology Archive, which contains industry-friendly parameters formatted for input to crop models.
sb: Provides access to the Sustainable Buildings Archive, which contains industry-friendly parameters for the buildings community to include parameters in multi-year monthly averages.
re: Provides access to the Renewable Energy Archive, which contains parameters specifically tailored to assist in the design of solar and wind powered renewable energy systems.

Argument details for `temporal_api`

There are four valid values.

hourly: The hourly average of pars by hour, day, month and year, the time zone is LST by default.
daily: The daily average of pars by day, month and year.
monthly: The monthly average of pars by month and year.
climatology: Provide parameters as 22-year climatologies (solar) and 30-year climatologies (meteorology); the period climatology and monthly average, maximum, and/or minimum values.

Argument details for `lonlat`

For a single point: To get a specific cell, 1/2 x 1/2 degree, supply a length-two numeric vector giving the decimal degree longitude and latitude in that order for data to download,
e.g., lonlat = c(-179.5, -89.5).
For regional coverage: To get a region, supply a length-four numeric vector as lower left (lon, lat) and upper right (lon, lat) coordinates, e.g., lonlat = c(xmin, ymin, xmax, ymax) in that order for a given region, e.g., a bounding box for the south western corner of Australia: lonlat = c(112.5, -55.5, 115.5, -50.5). *Maximum area processed is 4.5 x 4.5 degrees (100 points).
For global coverage: To get global coverage for “climatology”, supply “global” while also specifying “climatology” for the temporal_api.

Argument details for `dates`

if one date only is provided, it will be treated as both the start date and the end date and only a single day's values will be returned, e.g., dates = "1983-01-01". When temporal_api is set to “MONTHLY”, use only two year values (YYYY), e.g. dates = c(1983, 2010). This argument should not be used when temporal_api is set to “climatology” and will be ignored if set.

`wind_surface`

There are 17 surfaces that may be used for corrected wind-speed values using the following equation:

WSC_hgt = WS_10 m\times(\frac{hgt}{WS_50m})^\alpha

Valid surface types are described here.

vegtype_1: 35-m broadleaf-evergreen trees (70% coverage)
vegtype_2: 20-m broadleaf-deciduous trees (75% coverage)
vegtype_3: 20-m broadleaf and needleleaf trees (75% coverage)
vegtype_4: 17-m needleleaf-evergreen trees (75% coverage)
vegtype_5: 14-m needleleaf-deciduous trees (50% coverage)
vegtype_6: Savanna:18-m broadleaf trees (30%) & groundcover
vegtype_7: 0.6-m perennial groundcover (100%)
vegtype_8: 0.5-m broadleaf shrubs (variable %) & groundcover
vegtype_9: 0.5-m broadleaf shrubs (10%) with bare soil
vegtype_10: Tundra: 0.6-m trees/shrubs (variable %) & groundcover
vegtype_11: Rough bare soil
vegtype_12: Crop: 20-m broadleaf-deciduous trees (10%) & wheat
vegtype_20: Rough glacial snow/ice
seaice: Smooth sea ice
openwater: Open water
airportice: Airport: flat ice/snow
airportgrass: Airport: flat rough grass

Rate limiting

The POWER API endpoints limit queries to prevent server overloads due to repetitive and rapid requests. If you find that the API is throttling your queries, I suggest that you investigate the use of limit_rate() from ratelimitr to create self-limiting functions that will respect the rate limits that the API has in place. It is considered best practice to check the POWER website for the latest rate limits as they differ between temporal APIs and may change over time as the project matures.

Note

The associated metadata shown in the decorative header are not saved if the data are exported to a file format other than a native R data format, e.g., .Rdata, .rda or .rds.

Author(s)

Adam H. Sparks adamhsparks@gmail.com

References

https://power.larc.nasa.gov/docs/methodology/ https://power.larc.nasa.gov

Examples



# Fetch daily "AG" community temperature, relative humidity and
# precipitation for January 1 1985 at Kingsthorpe, Queensland, Australia
ag_d <- get_power(
  community = "AG",
  lonlat = c(151.81, -27.48),
  pars = c("RH2M", "T2M", "PRECTOTCORR"),
  dates = "1985-01-01",
  temporal_api = "daily"
)

ag_d

# Fetch single point climatology for air temperature
ag_c_point <- get_power(
  community = "AG",
  pars = "T2M",
  c(151.81, -27.48),
  temporal_api = "climatology"
)

ag_c_point

# Fetch interannual solar cooking parameters for a given region
interannual_clrsky <- get_power(
  community = "re",
  lonlat = c(150.5, -28.5, 153.5, -25.5),
  dates = c("1984", "1985"),
  temporal_api = "monthly",
  pars = "CLRSKY_SFC_SW_DWN"
)

interannual_allsky <- get_power(
  community = "re",
  lonlat = c(150.5, -28.5, 153.5, -25.5),
  dates = c("1984", "1985"),
  temporal_api = "monthly",
  pars = "ALLSKY_SFC_SW_DWN"
)

interannual_list <- list(interannual_clrsky, interannual_allsky)

interannual_re <- do.call("rbind", interannual_list)

interannual_re

nasapower Options

Description

The behaviour of certain nasapower functions can be controlled through package-level options. These are set via base::options() and retrieved internally using base::getOption(). All options have sensible defaults and do not need to be set for normal use.

Options can be set for a single session:

options(nasapower.timeout = 60L)

Or persistently across sessions by adding them to your .Rprofile:

# ~/.Rprofile
options(
  nasapower.timeout         = 60L,
  nasapower.timeout.connect = 10L,
  nasapower.max_tries       = 3L
)

Options

nasapower.timeout

Maximum time in seconds to wait for data to be transferred from the POWER API before the request is aborted. This controls the overall transfer timeout, not the time to establish a connection (see nasapower.timeout.connect).

Should be a single positive number. Non-integer values are coerced to
integer. If an invalid value is supplied a warning is issued and the
default is used.

Default: `10L`.

Increase this if you are retrieving large regional datasets or are on a
slow connection.

nasapower.timeout.connect

Maximum time in seconds to wait for a connection to the POWER API to be established before the request is aborted. A connection that takes longer than this is unlikely to succeed, so this is intentionally kept shorter than nasapower.timeout.

Should be a single positive number. Non-integer values are coerced to
integer. If an invalid value is supplied a warning is issued and the
default is used.

Default: `5L`.

nasapower.max_tries

Maximum number of times a failed request will be retried before an error is thrown. Retries are handled automatically by the underlying HTTP client and apply to transient failures (e.g., network timeouts, HTTP 429 or 503 responses).

Should be a single positive integer >= 1. A value of `1L` disables
retries. If an invalid value is supplied a warning is issued and the
default is used.

Default: `6L`.

Consider reducing this in automated pipelines where you would prefer to
fail fast and handle retries externally.

Cumulative wait time

The worst-case time before an error is surfaced to the user is approximately:

nasapower.max_tries * nasapower.timeout

With defaults (6L * 10L) this is roughly 60 seconds. If you increase either value, be aware of the combined effect on how long your code may block.

Query the POWER API for Detailed Information on Available Parameter Groupings

Description

Queries the POWER API returning detailed information on available parameter groupings. Results are grouped by community followed by temporal API, or if global = TRUE, grouped by climatology then by available parameter types.

Usage

query_groupings(global = FALSE)

Arguments

global

Boolean; should the query return global parameter groupings and attribute information? Defaults to FALSE, returning details for point data.

Value

A list object of information on parameter groupings in the POWER API.

Author(s)

Adam H. Sparks, adamhsparks@gmail.com

Examples


# Fetch groupings for parameters
query_groupings()

# Fetch groupings for global parameters
query_groupings(global = TRUE)

Query the POWER API for Detailed Information on Available Parameters

Description

Queries the POWER API returning detailed information on available parameters. For a list of all available parameters, see parameters.

Usage

query_parameters(
  community = NULL,
  pars = NULL,
  temporal_api = NULL,
  metadata = FALSE
)

Arguments

community

An optional character vector providing community name: "ag", "sb", or "re".

pars

An optional character string of a single solar, meteorological, or climatology parameter to query. If not provided, all parameters are returned.

temporal_api

An optional character vector indicating the temporal API endpoint for data being queried. Supported values are "hourly", "daily", "monthly", or "climatology".

metadata

Boolean; retrieve extra parameter metadata? This is only applicable if you supply both community and temporal_api; otherwise it will be ignored. Defaults to FALSE.

Value

A list object of information for the requested parameter(s), community(ies), and temporal API(s).

Argument details for `temporal_api`

There are four valid values:

hourly: The hourly average of parameters by hour, day, month, and year.
daily: The daily average of parameters by day, month, and year.
monthly: The monthly average of parameters by month and year.
climatology: Parameters as 22-year climatologies (solar) and 30-year climatologies (meteorology); includes period climatology and monthly average, maximum, and/or minimum values.

Author(s)

Adam H. Sparks, adamhsparks@gmail.com

Examples


# Fetch complete attribute information for "T2M"
query_parameters(pars = "T2M")

# Fetch temporal and community-specific attribute information
# for "T2M" in the "ag" community for the "hourly" temporal API
query_parameters(
  pars = "T2M",
  community = "ag",
  temporal_api = "hourly"
)

# Fetch all parameters in the "ag" community for "hourly" temporal API
query_parameters(
  community = "ag",
  temporal_api = "hourly"
)

Query the POWER API for Detailed Information on Wind Type Surfaces

Description

Queries the POWER API returning detailed information on all (or just one) wind elevation surface alias and attribute information.

Usage

query_surfaces(surface_alias = NULL)

Arguments

surface_alias

An optional character vector providing a wind surface alias available from the POWER API. All values are returned if not provided.

Value

A list object of information for the requested wind surface(s).

Author(s)

Adam H. Sparks, adamhsparks@gmail.com

Examples


# Fetch all wind surface information
query_surfaces()

# Fetch surface information for "airportgrass"
query_surfaces(surface_alias = "airportgrass")

Package {nasapower}

nasapower: NASA POWER API Client

Description

Author(s)

See Also

Get NASA POWER data from the POWER API

Description

Usage

Arguments

Value

Argument details for “community”

Argument details for temporal_api

Argument details for lonlat

Argument details for dates

wind_surface

Rate limiting

Note

Author(s)

References

Examples

nasapower Options

Description

Options

Cumulative wait time

Query the POWER API for Detailed Information on Available Parameter Groupings

Description

Usage

Arguments

Value

Author(s)

Examples

Query the POWER API for Detailed Information on Available Parameters

Description

Usage

Arguments

Value

Argument details for temporal_api

Author(s)

Examples

Query the POWER API for Detailed Information on Wind Type Surfaces

Description

Usage

Arguments

Value

Author(s)

Examples

Argument details for `temporal_api`

Argument details for `lonlat`

Argument details for `dates`

`wind_surface`

Argument details for `temporal_api`