nasapower
What nasapower is
nasapower is a free R package that automates requests for NASA POWER meteorology, surface solar energy, and climatology data from an R session. Its get_power function supports hourly, daily, monthly, and climatology requests. You can target one coordinate or a region; regional processing is limited to 4.5 × 4.5 degrees, or 100 points. Climatology requests can cover the globe by specifying “global” with the climatology temporal API. Results come back as a tidy data frame or tibble with a metadata header. The package accesses the Agroclimatology, Sustainable Buildings, and Renewable Energy archives, and can look up parameter details and definitions by community and temporal API. NASA POWER data are freely available, although spatial and temporal resolution varies by parameter and community. nasapower is an API client, not a data provider or redistributor. The stable package is on CRAN, a development version is on R-Universe, and the project uses the MIT license. POWER endpoints impose limits that can vary by temporal API and change over time.
Who it suits
It suits R users doing analysis, modelling, or other work with NASA POWER data. It is useful when requests need selectable time periods, coordinates, regions, or climatology coverage.
What it does well
- Hourly, daily, monthly, and climatology requests
- Returns tidy data frames or tibbles
- Supports coordinate and regional requests
- Queries parameter definitions by community
- Free under the MIT license
What to know first
- Regional requests capped at 100 points
- POWER API rate limits can change
- Does not provide or redistribute NASA POWER data
- No API documentation listed
Plans
| Plan | Billed and limits | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Free | NASA POWER data access via the R package; requests are subject to POWER API rate limits | Free |
As docs.ropensci.org lists them, read 8 Oct 2026. The maker's own page has the final word.
Verdict
nasapower provides a focused R interface for requesting NASA POWER data in several time formats and geographic scopes. Its regional cap and changing API limits are important considerations for larger or repeated workloads.
Facts from nasapower's own pages
- API documentation
- No · docs.ropensci.org, 24 Sept 2026
- Automated test runs
- No · docs.ropensci.org, 24 Sept 2026
- Communities
- The package accesses the Agroclimatology, Sustainable Buildings and Renewable Energy archives. · docs.ropensci.org, 8 Oct 2026
- Data availability
- The documentation says POWER data are freely available for download, with spatial and temporal resolutions varying by parameter and community. · docs.ropensci.org, 8 Oct 2026
- Data provider
- nasapower is an API client and does not provide or redistribute NASA POWER data. · docs.ropensci.org, 8 Oct 2026
- Free plan
- Yes · docs.ropensci.org, 24 Sept 2026
- Global requests
- Global coverage is available for climatology requests by specifying “global” with the climatology temporal API. · docs.ropensci.org, 8 Oct 2026
- GraphQL support
- No · docs.ropensci.org, 24 Sept 2026
- gRPC support
- No · docs.ropensci.org, 24 Sept 2026
- Installation
- The stable package is available through CRAN and a development version is available through R-Universe. · docs.ropensci.org, 8 Oct 2026
- Intended users
- The package is intended for analysis, modelling and other uses of NASA POWER data within R. · docs.ropensci.org, 8 Oct 2026
- License
- The package is released under the MIT license. · docs.ropensci.org, 8 Oct 2026
- Output
- The package returns POWER data as a tidy data frame or tibble with a metadata header. · docs.ropensci.org, 8 Oct 2026
- Parameter lookup
- The package can query the POWER API for details about available parameters and their definitions by community and temporal API. · docs.ropensci.org, 8 Oct 2026
- Point and regional requests
- Requests can target a single coordinate or a region, with regional processing limited to a maximum area of 4.5 × 4.5 degrees (100 points). · docs.ropensci.org, 8 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- nasapower automates downloading NASA POWER global meteorology, surface solar energy and climatology data in an R session. · docs.ropensci.org, 8 Oct 2026
- Rate limits
- POWER API endpoints limit requests to prevent overload, and limits can differ by temporal API and change over time. · docs.ropensci.org, 8 Oct 2026
- Support
- The documentation directs users to report issues or bugs and provides a contributing guide. · docs.ropensci.org, 8 Oct 2026
- Team workspaces
- No · docs.ropensci.org, 24 Sept 2026
- Temporal data
- The get_power function supports hourly, daily, monthly and climatology requests. · docs.ropensci.org, 8 Oct 2026
- WebSocket support
- No · docs.ropensci.org, 24 Sept 2026
Where nasapower stands on Freedom251
- API clients#34 of 38