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ARD Order Delivery Directory Structure

Last updated: June 15, 2022

Overview

Maxar ARD products are divided along a global discrete grid of 5km x 5km squares, organized by quadkeys and split into UTM zones. This also serves as a structure to organize the files. For more information about the Maxar grid system, see About ARD: The Maxar Data Grid.

All files from an order are delivered to a single bucket and prefix location that is specified in the order request. If no prefix is specified in the order, the files are delivered to the root bucket location.

Directory structure

The directory structure follows this format:

📁 {bucket or container}
└── 📁 {prefix}
    └── 📁 acquisition_collections
        └─╴📄 {acquisition ID}_collection.json
    └─╴ 📁 order_collections
        └─╴📄 {orderID}_root_collection.json
    └── 📁 {UTM-zone}
        └── 📁 {quadkey}
            └── 📁 {acquisition-date}
                └─╴📄 {acquisition ID}[-{data descriptor}].{file type}
    └── 📄 {orderID}-request.json

An example showing one tile from an order looks like:

📁 maxar-ard-samples
└── 📁 sample-002
    └── 📁 acquisition_collections
        └─╴📄 10300100B3841C000_collection.json
    └── 📁 order_collections
        └─╴📄 5633324896324598239_root_collection.json
    └── 📁 13
        └── 📁 031133231113
            └── 📁 2021-01-16
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C00-cloud-mask.gpkg
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C00-cloud-shadow-mask.gpkg
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C00-clouds.tif
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C000-data-mask.gpkg
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C00-healthy-vegetation.tif
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C00-healthy-vegetation-mask.gpkg
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C00-ms-saturation-mask.gpkg
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C00-ms-saturation.tif
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C00-ms.tif
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C000-pan.tif
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C00-pan-flare.tif
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C00-pan-flare-mask.gpkg
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C00-terrain-shadow-mask.gpkg
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C00-terrain-shadows.tif
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C000-visual.tif
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C00-water-mask.gpkg
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C00-water.tif
                └─╴📄 10300100B3841C00.json
    └── 📄 5633324896324598239-request.json

Additional report file for non-intersecting tiles partial delivery

In the event that an order is placed where some tiles do not intersect the AOI, the tiles that intersect will be delivered, and a report showing the non-intersecting tiles will be included in the delivery. If there are no non-intersecting tiles, this report is not generated.

This report is named {orderID}_non_intersecting_tiles_report.json.

It is located in the order_collections subdirectory.

📁 {bucket or container}
└── 📁 {prefix}
    └── 📁 acquisition_collections
        └─╴📄 {acquisition ID}_collection.json
    └─╴ 📁 order_collections
        └─╴📄 {orderID}_root_collection.json
        └─╴📄 {orderID}_non_intersecting_tiles_report.json

Delivery directory structure

This is the directory structure of an ARD order delivery. There can be multiple prefixes in the path.

bucket or container/prefix/UTM_zone/quadkey/acquisition_date/

Directory levels

Location Description Example
bucket or container The cloud storage bucket or container. This is the root of the directory tree. Many prefixes can be be associated with one bucket or container. For example: /{bucket1}/{prefix1} and /{bucket1}/{prefix2}/ maxar-ard-samples
prefix The prefix or subdirectory where the output files are delivered. There can be more than one prefix in a path. sample-002/new-mexico/albuquerque
acquisition_collections Contains the STAC collection files for each acquisition in the order. acquisition_collections
order_collections Contains the STAC collection files for each order delivered to the prefix location. order_collections
UTM-zone The UTM Zone where the acquisitions in this path are located. There are 60 UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) zones. The sample-002 data is located in Albuquerque, which is in UTM zone 13.There can be many UTM zone subdirectories in one order. 13
quadkey Quadkeys are unique identifiers of ARD Data Grid tiles. Each quadkey represents the boundary of a grid cell. There can be many quadkeys within a UTM zone subdirectory. 031133231113
acquisition-date The date the imagery in the directory path was acquired by the satellite.The files associated with an ARD tile are stored in the acquisition-date subdirectory. 2021-01-16

An "acquisition" is a full image strip acquired by the satellite. A tile is part of an acquisition, identified by the quadkey address. As a result, the same acquisition ID may appear in different directory paths within a UTM zone.

Sample data

Browse ARD sample datasets to see examples of an order delivery.

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