Earthdata Forum

Hello,

We understand that NASA has migrated MODIS data to the Earthdata Cloud infrastructure. Our automated pipeline, which uses Bearer token authentication via our Earthdata account, has been encountering access issues since July 1st.

Initially, we received the following error:
httpx.HTTPStatusError: Client error '404 Not Found' for URL 'https://e4ftl01.cr.usgs.gov/MOTA/MCD12Q1.061'

After July 24th, the error changed to:
httpx.HTTPStatusError: Client error '401 Unauthorized' for URL 'https://urs.earthdata.nasa.gov/oauth/authorize?...'

The shift from a 404 to a 401 suggests that the URLs are now redirecting correctly, but our account may lack the necessary permissions to access the data in the new Earthdata Cloud environment.

Could you please confirm whether additional authorization is required for our Earthdata account to access MODIS Collection 061 via the new infrastructure?

Let me know if you have any questions.

Many Thanks

Regards,
Karthick

Additional authorization should not be required. Here is your dataset in the new Earthdata website: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/data/catalog?keyword=MCD12Q1.061

If you click the dataset, it'll take you to the dataset landing page. You will find a 'Data Access' link on the right where you can choose your preferred download method.

LP DAAC has been tagged on this question to provide any further insights.

Thanks for your response.

I’m trying to download MODIS products programmatically using Python and would appreciate some guidance.

I’ve attempted using the URL https://data.lpdaac.earthdatacloud.nasa.gov/lp-prod-protected, but haven’t had success. Could you confirm the correct endpoint for accessing MODIS data (e.g., MCD12Q1.061) via Earthdata Cloud?

Also, is it now mandatory to use the earthaccess library for authentication and downloads? If not, what are the recommended alternatives?

Any help on setting up a working Python workflow for MODIS data access would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Karthick

Hi Karthick,
Your Earthdata credentials should work as they have in the past. The MCD12Q1.061 concept ID is:
c2484079608-lpcloud
Please see our Accessing NASA LP DAAC Data Resource site for several options: https://github.com/nasa/LPDAAC-Data-Resources/blob/main/guides/NASA_LPDAAC_Data_Access_Guide.md
If you are still having access issues, we would be happy to take a look at your script to see what the issue may be. You could attach it here or send it to through our email: lpdaac@usgs.gov
Thanks,
Brett

Hi Brett,
Thanks for offering to review the script.
The credentials are working fine, what’s unclear is the correct URL for downloading MODIS products after the migration to Earthdata Cloud. I’ll email you the Python script that’s currently failing with a 401 Unauthorized error.
Please could you suggest the changes required to the script to resolve this?

Thanks,
Karthick