COGs and VRTs on the web

COG
VRT
/vsicurl/
classic
GEBCO bathymetry, GHRSST MUR SST and the Copernicus 30 m DEM: windows from very large rasters.

Classic mode suits single large rasters. Opening reads the header; selecting a window reads only the tiles under it, at the overview level GDAL picks for the request.

GEBCO bathymetry around Tasmania

  • Address: /vsicurl/https://data.source.coop/ausantarctic/gebco/GEBCO_2026.tif
  • Provider: AAD on source.coop
  • Permanent: an archive the provider commits to keeping.
  • Status: answered the store check at 2026-11-01 09:15 UTC.
dsn = "/vsicurl/https://data.source.coop/ausantarctic/gebco/GEBCO_2026.tif"
if live("gebco-sourcecoop"):
    gebco = xr.open_dataset(dsn, engine="gdalxarray", multidim=False)
    print(gebco["band_data"].shape, gebco["band_data"].encoding.get("preferred_chunks"))
(1, 43200, 86400) {'band': 1, 'y': 512, 'x': 512}
if live("gebco-sourcecoop"):
    tas = gebco["band_data"].isel(band=0).sel(x=slice(140, 152), y=slice(-38, -46))
    fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(8, 6))
    tas.plot(ax=ax, cmap="terrain", vmin=-6000, vmax=1500)
    ax.set_aspect(1 / np.cos(np.radians(-42)))
    plt.show()

GEBCO 2026 elevation, 140-152E, 38-46S: the shelf, the Tasman Fracture Zone and the East Tasman Plateau.

GHRSST MUR, one day

  • Address: /vsicurl/https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/us-west-2.opendata.source.coop/ausantarctic/ghrsst-mur-v2/2024/02/01/20240201090000-JPL-L4_GHRSST-SSTfnd-MUR-GLOB-v02.0-fv04.1_analysed_sst.tif
  • Provider: AAD on source.coop
  • Permanent: an archive the provider commits to keeping.
  • Status: answered the store check at 2026-11-01 09:15 UTC.
dsn = ("/vsicurl/https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/us-west-2.opendata.source.coop/ausantarctic/"
       "ghrsst-mur-v2/2024/02/01/20240201090000-JPL-L4_GHRSST-SSTfnd-MUR-GLOB-v02.0-fv04.1_analysed_sst.tif")
if live("mur-sourcecoop"):
    mur = xr.open_dataset(dsn, engine="gdalxarray", multidim=False)
    m = mur["band_data"].isel(band=0).sel(x=slice(147, 162), y=slice(-25, -40))
    fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(7, 6))
    m.plot(ax=ax, cmap="RdYlBu_r", robust=True)
    ax.set_title("MUR foundation SST, 1 February 2024"); ax.set_aspect(1 / np.cos(np.radians(-32)))
    plt.show()

The Copernicus 30 m DEM as one VRT

A VRT over every GLO-30 tile, warped on read into a local projection with gdalxarray.warp:

  • Address: /vsicurl/https://opentopography.s3.sdsc.edu/raster/COP30/COP30_hh.vrt
  • Provider: OpenTopography
  • Permanent: an archive the provider commits to keeping.
  • Status: answered the store check at 2026-11-01 09:15 UTC.
dsn = "/vsicurl/https://opentopography.s3.sdsc.edu/raster/COP30/COP30_hh.vrt"
if live("cop30-vrt"):
    rec = gdalxarray.warp(dsn, crs="EPSG:32755", bbox=(505000, 5241000, 535000, 5266000),
                          resolution=(30, 30), resampling="bilinear")
    dem = xr.open_dataset(rec, engine="gdalxarray", multidim=False)["band_data"].isel(band=0)
    fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(8, 6.5))
    dem.plot(ax=ax, cmap="gist_earth")
    ax.set_aspect("equal")
    plt.show()

COP30 around kunanyi / Mount Wellington, warped from longitude/latitude to UTM zone 55S at 30 m.

Rendered with GDAL 3.13.3, xarray 2026.4.1.dev32+g71cfb13ac, numpy 2.5.4, gdalxarray 0.5.1, rasterix 0.2.4.