![stac-logo](../_static/services/stac_logo.png)

# How to use STAC

## Install

```
pip install pystac-client
```

## Connect and search

Open a connection to the eodc STAC API and search for items by collection, bounding box, and time range:

```python
import pystac_client

stac_url = "https://stac.eodc.eu/api/v1"

eodc = pystac_client.Client.open(stac_url)

found = eodc.search(
    collections=["SENTINEL1_GRD"],
    bbox=[7.9, 48.9, 8, 49],
    datetime="2021-07-01/2021-07-15"
)

for item in found.items():
    print(item.id, item.datetime)
```

**Step by step:**

1. `pystac_client.Client.open(stac_url)` — connects to the eodc STAC API. No authentication required for public collections.
2. `eodc.search(collections=...)` — filters by collection name. Browse available collections at `https://stac.eodc.eu/api/v1/collections`.
3. `bbox` — spatial filter as `[west, south, east, north]` in WGS84 decimal degrees.
4. `datetime` — temporal filter as an ISO 8601 interval (`start/end`). Single dates are also accepted.
5. `found.items()` — iterates over matching STAC items. Each item contains metadata and links to the actual data assets.

## Next steps

- Load assets into xarray using `odc-stac` — see the [Load Data with Xarray](../notebooks/stac-xarray) notebook.
- See the [Data Discovery](../notebooks/stac-discovery) notebook for a full worked example of searching and browsing collections.
- Browse available collections: `https://stac.eodc.eu/api/v1/collections`