Large EO data portals usually allow two main different ways of access based on the technical proficiency of the target user group. Users can either use the graphical user interface of the selected portal or use one of the available APIs for search. Below are examples of ways to search for your data.
Web Browser Catalogue client
Many large portals provide an easy-to-use search and filtering GUI, which under the hood uses one of the provided catalog APIs. This allows less experienced users to perform queries usually for a smaller subset of data with the help of an attached Web map client to orient themselves easily.
API Access
For batch operations or script access to the catalogs, it is envisioned that a direct approach to the API is performed instead. This removes the need for direct user interaction with the web platform and can be used from user-provided scripts or other programs and CLI tools.
Fore more information about performing filtering or queries, see Data Properties.
STAC Browser
In order to access and browse any online STAC catalog or API, a rich web client application STAC Browser can be used on radiantearth.github.io/stac-browser. It does allow a wide variety of filtering capabilities.
STAC QGIS plugin
QGIS STAC API Browser provides a simple and user-friendly approach to searching and using STAC API resources in QGIS. It offers a comfortable way to filter and browse the STAC API items and the ability to add the STAC API assets as map layers into the QGIS.
QGIS MetaSearch Catalog Client
MetaSearch is a QGIS plugin to interact with metadata catalog services, supporting both the OGC API – Records and OGC Catalog Service for the Web (CSW) standards.
OWSLib
OWSLib is a Python package for client programming with Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) web service (hence OWS) interface standards, and their related content models. The OWSLib client offers support for OGC CSW, OGC API – Records and OpenSearch-based catalog services.
PySTAC client
The STAC Python Client (pystac_client) is a Python package for working with STAC Catalogs and APIs that conform to the STAC and STAC API specs in a seamless way. PySTAC Client builds upon PySTAC through higher-level functionality and the ability to leverage STAC API search endpoints.