Sources
Sources and licences
Last updated 28 September 2026
Every reading is built from public satellite and open data. The data belongs to the people who publish it; what TERRA adds is the reading. Below is each source, who holds it, and the licence it is used under. Every reading also names the sources it drew on, and which of them were silent.
Some sources are read only where they apply, such as the Amazon basin or Costa Rica, or only where this deployment holds a key for them.
01Credits
When you publish or share a reading, keep these lines with it.
- Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data, 2015 to the present.
- Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information (ERA5).
- Weather and climate data by Open-Meteo.com, CC-BY 4.0.
- © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence.
- Plus the credit of each source a reading names, as listed below.
02Reading the land · 39 sources
- Place · OpenStreetMap / Nominatim
OpenStreetMap contributors
ODbL 1.0
live
- Terrain · AWS Terrarium (Mapzen)
Mapzen / AWS Open Data
Open (attribution)
2017
- Climate · Open-Meteo
Open-Meteo (ERA5 archive + CMIP6)
CC-BY 4.0 (data); non-commercial API tier
2004–2024 / 2045–2049
- Soil · ISRIC SoilGrids v2
ISRIC · World Soil Information
CC-BY 4.0
2020
- Land cover · ESA WorldCover
ESA / Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data
CC-BY 4.0 (commercial promotion: notify due@esa.int)
2021
- Water, roads & protected areas · OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap contributors
ODbL 1.0
live
- Biodiversity · GBIF
GBIF.org
Mixed CC0 / CC-BY / CC-BY-NC (per dataset)
live
- Surface water · JRC Global Surface Water
EC JRC / Google (Copernicus)
Copernicus / open (attribution)
1984–2021
- Active fire · NASA FIRMS
NASA LANCE / MODAPS
NASA open data
live
- Deforestation alerts · Global Forest Watch
UMD GLAD / WUR RADD via GFW
CC-BY 4.0
rolling
- Tree plantations · GFW Spatial Database of Planted Trees
World Resources Institute / Global Forest Watch
CC-BY 4.0
2023
- Forest loss · Hansen Global Forest Change
Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA
CC-BY 4.0
2000–2023
- Canopy height · ETH Global Canopy Height
ETH Zurich (Lang et al.)
CC-BY 4.0
2020
- Above-ground biomass · ESA CCI Biomass
ESA Climate Change Initiative
Open (attribution)
2021
- Vegetation vigor · Sentinel-2 NDVI
ESA Copernicus via Element84 Earth Search
CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO (Copernicus)
live
- Land-surface temperature · Landsat C2 L2
USGS/NASA via Microsoft Planetary Computer
Public domain (USGS)
live
- Radar backscatter · Sentinel-1 RTC
ESA Copernicus via Microsoft Planetary Computer
CC-BY 4.0 (Copernicus)
live
- Security & governance · World Bank WGI
World Bank (Worldwide Governance Indicators)
CC-BY 4.0
annual
NASA open data
monthly
- Amazon deforestation · INPE DETER
INPE / TerraBrasilis
INPE open data
rolling
- Protected areas · WDPA / Protected Planet
UNEP-WCMC & IUCN
Protected Planet terms (attribution, non-commercial caveats)
monthly
- Underground fungal networks · SPUN Underground Atlas
SPUN · Society for the Protection of Underground Networks
No explicit license on the archive · terms requested from SPUN; attribution given
2025 (v1.0)
- Ecological corridors · PNCB / SINAC (Costa Rica)
SINAC · Programa Nacional de Corredores Biológicos
Public programme (SINAC); reference compiled for screening
PNCB (rolling)
- Regional illness · dengue burden (Costa Rica)
OpenDengue (Clarke et al. 2024) / PAHO subnational record of Ministerio de Salud notifications
CC-BY 4.0 (OpenDengue)
2013–2018 (district) / 2024 (national)
- Costa Rica territorial record · SNIT
SNIT / IGN (IDECORI nodes: Registro Inmobiliario, MAG-INTA, SINAC)
SNIT Condiciones Generales de Uso (attribution)
national SDI (rolling)
- Biomass · HGB Harmonized Global Biomass 2010
Spawn & Gibbs (ORNL DAAC), via Microsoft Planetary Computer
Open (ORNL DAAC · cite Spawn et al. 2020)
2010
- Siting · TERRA geometry on the AWS Terrarium DEM
Mapzen / AWS Open Data (elevation); TERRA (analysis)
Open (attribution)
2017 (DEM)
- Watershed · Global Watersheds (MERIT-Hydro)
mghydro.com (Heberger) / MERIT-Hydro (Yamazaki et al.)
Open service, no warranty; engine open source (delineator)
MERIT-Hydro 2019
- Population · WorldPop
WorldPop, University of Southampton
CC-BY 4.0
2020
- Hazard screening · ThinkHazard!
GFDRR / World Bank
GFDRR open (attribution)
division report (mixed vintages)
- Seismicity · USGS earthquake catalog
U.S. Geological Survey (FDSN event service)
US public domain (cite USGS)
live catalog
- Fire history · MODIS burned area
NASA MODIS MCD64A1 (via a bundled regional cutout)
NASA open data (cite LP DAAC)
cutout build date (see data/fire/PROVENANCE.json)
- Satellite signature · AlphaEarth Foundations
The AlphaEarth Foundations Satellite Embedding dataset is produced by Google and Google DeepMind.
CC-BY 4.0
2017 and 2025 annual layers
- Adaptation layer · OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap contributors (Overpass)
ODbL 1.0
live
- Infrastructure reach · OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap contributors (Overpass)
ODbL 1.0
live
- Heritage presence · public record
OpenStreetMap contributors (Overpass)
ODbL 1.0
live
- Place memory · Wikipedia
Wikipedia (es + en)
CC BY-SA 4.0 (titles/facts)
live
- Governance · public map record + Wikidata
OpenStreetMap/Nominatim; Wikidata (CC0); PNUD/UCR Atlas (CR HDI)
ODbL 1.0 / CC0 / PNUD-UCR publication (attribution)
live / Atlas data year 2022
- Indigenous territories · official record (Costa Rica)
FONAFIFO/SNIT geoservices; decrees under Ley Indígena 6172
SNIT/FONAFIFO public services (attribution); decree facts public law
decree delimitations (rolling)
03Reading the water · 5 more
AQUA reads a body of water with the sources above that apply to it, and these of its own.
- Water optics · Copernicus Sentinel-2
ESA / Copernicus Sentinel-2 L2A via Element84 Earth Search (anonymous COGs)
Copernicus Sentinel data · free, full and open
live (latest clear scene, ≤ 120 days)
- Body & shore cover · ESA WorldCover
ESA / Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data
CC-BY 4.0 (commercial promotion: notify due@esa.int)
2021
- Water bodies, works & shore uses · OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap contributors
ODbL 1.0
live
- Basin · AWS Terrarium (Mapzen) with ETOPO1 bathymetry
Mapzen / AWS Open Data; NOAA ETOPO1 below sea level
Open (attribution)
2017 (ETOPO1: 2009)
- Surface temperature · Landsat Collection 2 Level-2
USGS / NASA via Microsoft Planetary Computer (anonymous SAS)
US public domain
live (≤ 365 days)
04Base maps
- Satellite base map
Powered by Esri · Esri, Vantor (Maxar), Earthstar Geographics, and the GIS User Community
Provider terms; credited on every map
- Night lights and today's Earth
NASA EOSDIS GIBS
NASA open data
- Tree-cover loss tiles
Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA, served by Global Forest Watch
CC-BY 4.0
05The score
The weights that turn these readings into the Dear Wise Earth Land Score are TERRA’s own and are not published. If you hold the rights to a source and see it described wrongly here, write to connect@dearwise.earth.
Questions: connect@dearwise.earth