EarthScope
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Terms of Use

Last updated: 12 November 2026

These terms apply to the EarthScope website, the EarthScope app and any data, charts or files you get from them (together, "EarthScope"). By using EarthScope you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use it.

1. What EarthScope is

EarthScope is a free, educational project built by a student team for the NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2026. It shows environmental trends calculated from publicly available NASA satellite observations and model outputs, tests whether those trends are statistically significant, and shows forecasts with uncertainty ranges.

2. Not for critical decisions

EarthScope is for learning and exploration. Do not rely on it for safety, medical, legal, financial, insurance, agricultural, engineering, emergency or policy decisions. Always check official sources and qualified experts.

  • Trends and significance results depend on the data period, the location and the methods described on the Methods page. Different choices can give different answers.
  • Forecasts and climate scenarios are estimates with ranges, not predictions of what will happen.
  • Satellite records can contain gaps, errors and changes between instruments (for example the move from MODIS to VIIRS).
  • When the site shows "Demo Data", the numbers are synthetic and are not real measurements.

3. Data and attribution

EarthScope uses data from NASA missions and programmes, including MODIS, VIIRS, GISTEMP, GPM IMERG, GRACE and GRACE-FO, MERRA-2 and NEX-GDDP-CMIP6, and map outlines from Natural Earth. These sources keep their own terms. NASA data is generally free to use with credit. NEX-GDDP-CMIP6 is provided under CC0. EarthScope uses NASA data but is not endorsed by, sponsored by or affiliated with NASA, and nothing on the site should be read as a NASA statement.

If you reuse charts or numbers from EarthScope, please credit "EarthScope (NASA Space Apps 2026)" and the original NASA dataset shown under each chart.

4. Our code and content

The EarthScope source code is released under the MIT licence (see the LICENSE file in the repository). Text, graphics and charts created by the team may be shared for non-commercial and educational use with credit. Third-party libraries (ECharts, three.js, globe.gl, topojson-client) and fonts (Inter, JetBrains Mono) are used under their own open-source licences.

5. Acceptable use

  • Do not try to disrupt, overload, scrape at high volume or attack EarthScope or its data service.
  • Do not present EarthScope results as official NASA or government findings.
  • Do not use EarthScope in a way that breaks the law or the terms of the underlying data providers.

6. No warranty

EarthScope is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, including accuracy, completeness, availability or fitness for a particular purpose. The service may change, pause or end at any time, for example after the hackathon.

7. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent allowed by law, the EarthScope team is not liable for any loss or damage arising from using, or being unable to use, EarthScope or anything shown on it.

8. Links to other sites

EarthScope links to NASA, data archives, GitHub and other sites. We do not control them and are not responsible for their content or practices.

9. Changes

We may update these terms. The date at the top shows the latest version. Continuing to use EarthScope after a change means you accept the new terms.

10. Contact

Questions about these terms: see the contact address on the project site.