STAC is a specification for describing geospatial assets — satellite imagery, aerial photography, derived data products — so they can be discovered and used without bespoke integration per provider. It defines a JSON item format and a companion API, and it is the standard that made earth-observation archives searchable across organisations rather than only within them.
STAC
STAC, the SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog, is a specification for describing geospatial assets — satellite imagery, aerial photography, derived data products — so that they can be discovered and used without a bespoke integration per provider. It defines a JSON item format and a companion API specification.
- Item, Collection, Catalog - Three nested concepts, and a static catalog of JSON files is a valid implementation. That low floor is why adoption moved fast.
- STAC API - The searchable server profile, built on OGC API — Features rather than beside it.
- Extensions - Electro-optical, SAR, datacube and more, so domain specifics live outside the core.
- JSON Schema published - Every core object and extension has a schema, and there is a validator.
STAC is the standard that made earth-observation archives searchable across organisations rather than only within them, and it did it by being cheap to adopt. A provider can publish a directory of JSON files and be conformant; the API is an upgrade, not an entry requirement. In a catalog full of standards that demand everything before they give anything, STAC is a useful counter-example.
Industry: Geospatial
Also in the data model catalog
This standard shows up on both sides of the house — as a standard applied in API operations here, and as a data model defining what information exists. Same standard, two lenses.
See it as a data model →