Our public New Zealand Imagery bucket can be used with a number of applications, including STAC Browser, s5cmd, GDAL, QGIS, ArcGIS Pro and Cyberduck.

The STAC Catalog, https://nz-imagery.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/catalog.json, is the entry point of the LINZ imagery data. It points to the different STAC Collections representing a dataset.

Note: The files in the nz-imagery bucket can be accessed via s3://nz-imagery or https://nz-imagery.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/.

This is an example using the "Wellington 0.075m Urban Aerial Photos (2021)" dataset.

1. From catalog.json get the Collection link for "Wellington 0.075m Urban Aerial Photos (2021)" in the links list:

   {
     "rel": "child",
     "href": "./wellington/wellington_2021_0.075m/rgb/2193/collection.json",
     "title": "Wellington 0.075m Urban Aerial Photos (2021)",
     "file:checksum": "1220ca9a50511a2cb0f03229a4cc0342b30c57790f63d72221396942a18719efcd42",
     "file:size": 172494
   }

2. The Collection can be accessed from this GitHub repository, stac/wellington/wellington_2021_0.075m/rgb/2193/collection.json or from https://nz-imagery.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wellington/wellington_2021_0.075m/rgb/2193/collection.json. From the Collection get an Item link in the links list:

   { "rel": "item", "href": "./BQ31_500_040071.json", "type": "application/json" }

3. The Item can be accessed from https://nz-imagery.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wellington/wellington_2021_0.075m/rgb/2193/BQ31_500_040071.json. A list of assets can be found:

   "assets": {
     "visual": {
       "href": "./BQ31_500_040071.tiff",
       "type": "image/tiff; application=geotiff; profile=cloud-optimized",
       "file:checksum": "1220648bf40bb0b7e1996ac3f4ae52858ec417fcf0179e5f13e31ae6d071431c79f9"
     }
   }

4. In this case, the TIFF can be accessed from https://nz-imagery.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wellington/wellington_2021_0.075m/rgb/2193/BQ31_500_040071.tiff

Note: Our TIFF files and STAC Item files use the same base name. Having the link to the STAC Item, you can determine the TIFF link by changing its suffix from .json to .tiff.

This tool is described in this page.

s5cmd is a parallel file execution command-line interface tool. It is written in Go and the GitHub repository includes pre-built binaries for Windows, Mac and Linux. It supports public S3 buckets.

List the contents of a public bucket using the --no-sign-request flag.

s5cmd --no-sign-request ls s3://nz-imagery/

                                  DIR  auckland/
                                  DIR  bay-of-plenty/
                                  DIR  canterbury/
                                  DIR  gisborne/
                                  DIR  hawkes-bay/
                                  DIR  manawatu-whanganui/
                                  DIR  marlborough/
                                  DIR  nelson/
                                  DIR  new-zealand/
                                  DIR  northland/
                                  DIR  otago/
                                  DIR  southland/
                                  DIR  taranaki/
                                  DIR  tasman/
                                  DIR  waikato/
                                  DIR  wellington/
                                  DIR  west-coast/
2023/09/01 02:49:04             18657  LICENSE
2023/09/12 01:56:32            123024  catalog.json

Check the total size of all imagery held for one region.

s5cmd --no-sign-request du --humanize s3://nz-imagery/canterbury/*

3.1T bytes in 170541 objects: s3://nz-imagery/canterbury/*

Check the total size of a specific imagery dataset and limit to just the image files (not metadata).

s5cmd --no-sign-request du --humanize s3://nz-imagery/canterbury/canterbury_2022_0.3m/rgb/2193/*.tiff

273.0G bytes in 2184 objects: s3://nz-imagery/canterbury/canterbury_2022_0.3m/rgb/2193/*.tiff

Copy all of the image files to a new target location.

s5cmd --no-sign-request cp --show-progress s3://nz-imagery/canterbury/canterbury_2022_0.3m/rgb/2193/*.tiff <target_path>

GDAL

GDAL allows you to run commands on a file that is not on your local machine using a virtual file system path:

• /vsicurl/https://nz-imagery.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/[PATH]
• /vsis3/s3://nz-imagery/[PATH]

gdalinfo /vsicurl/https://nz-imagery.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wellington/wellington_2021_0.075m/rgb/2193/BQ31_500_040071.tiff

Driver: GTiff/GeoTIFF
Files: BQ31_500_040071.tiff
Size is 3200, 4800
Coordinate System is:
PROJCRS["NZGD2000 / New Zealand Transverse Mercator 2000",
    BASEGEOGCRS["NZGD2000",
        DATUM["New Zealand Geodetic Datum 2000",
            ELLIPSOID["GRS 1980",6378137,298.257222101,
                LENGTHUNIT["metre",1]]],
        PRIMEM["Greenwich",0,
            ANGLEUNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433]],
        ID["EPSG",4167]],
    CONVERSION["New Zealand Transverse Mercator 2000",
        METHOD["Transverse Mercator",
            ID["EPSG",9807]],
        PARAMETER["Latitude of natural origin",0,
            ANGLEUNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433],
            ID["EPSG",8801]],
        PARAMETER["Longitude of natural origin",173,
            ANGLEUNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433],
            ID["EPSG",8802]],
        PARAMETER["Scale factor at natural origin",0.9996,
            SCALEUNIT["unity",1],
            ID["EPSG",8805]],
        PARAMETER["False easting",1600000,
            LENGTHUNIT["metre",1],
            ID["EPSG",8806]],
        PARAMETER["False northing",10000000,
            LENGTHUNIT["metre",1],
            ID["EPSG",8807]]],
    CS[Cartesian,2],
        AXIS["northing (N)",north,
            ORDER[1],
            LENGTHUNIT["metre",1]],
        AXIS["easting (E)",east,
            ORDER[2],
            LENGTHUNIT["metre",1]],
    USAGE[
        SCOPE["Engineering survey, topographic mapping."],
        AREA["New Zealand - North Island, South Island, Stewart Island - onshore."],
        BBOX[-47.33,166.37,-34.1,178.63]],
    ID["EPSG",2193]]
Data axis to CRS axis mapping: 2,1
Origin = (1748800.000000000000000,5427960.000000000000000)
Pixel Size = (0.075000000000000,-0.075000000000000)
Metadata:
  AREA_OR_POINT=Area
Image Structure Metadata:
  COMPRESSION=WEBP
  INTERLEAVE=PIXEL
  LAYOUT=COG
Corner Coordinates:
Upper Left  ( 1748800.000, 5427960.000) (174d46'37.05"E, 41d17' 9.95"S)
Lower Left  ( 1748800.000, 5427600.000) (174d46'37.37"E, 41d17'21.62"S)
Upper Right ( 1749040.000, 5427960.000) (174d46'47.36"E, 41d17' 9.79"S)
Lower Right ( 1749040.000, 5427600.000) (174d46'47.68"E, 41d17'21.46"S)
Center      ( 1748920.000, 5427780.000) (174d46'42.37"E, 41d17'15.70"S)
Band 1 Block=512x512 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Red
  Overviews: 1600x2400, 800x1200, 400x600, 200x300
  Mask Flags: PER_DATASET ALPHA
  Overviews of mask band: 1600x2400, 800x1200, 400x600, 200x300
Band 2 Block=512x512 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Green
  Overviews: 1600x2400, 800x1200, 400x600, 200x300
  Mask Flags: PER_DATASET ALPHA
  Overviews of mask band: 1600x2400, 800x1200, 400x600, 200x300
Band 3 Block=512x512 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Blue
  Overviews: 1600x2400, 800x1200, 400x600, 200x300
  Mask Flags: PER_DATASET ALPHA
  Overviews of mask band: 1600x2400, 800x1200, 400x600, 200x300
Band 4 Block=512x512 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Alpha
  Overviews: 1600x2400, 800x1200, 400x600, 200x300

1. In QGIS, open the "Data Source Manager" (press ctrl+L)

2. Select "Protocol: HTTP(S)" as the "Source Type"

3. Select "HTTP/HTTPS/FTP" as the "Protocol Type"

4. Paste the HTTPS URL to the TIFF, for example https://nz-imagery.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wellington/wellington_2021_0.075m/rgb/2193/BQ31_500_040071.tiff

5. Click on the "Add" button and wait for the file to load.

   

1. On the "Insert" ribbon, select "Connections" then "Cloud Store" then "New Cloud Storage Connection".

   

2. In the "Create Cloud Storage Connection" dialog, add a "Connection File Name" e.g. New Zealand Imagery, "Service Provider" as AMAZON, "Bucket Name" as nz-imagery, "Region" as Asia Pacific (Sydney) and "Service Endpoint" as s3.ap-southeast-2.amazon.com.

3. Because this is a Public Bucket, add a "Provider Option" with "Name" of AWS_NO_SIGN_REQUEST and "Value" of YES. This means that you won't need an Access Key ID or Secret Access Key.

   

4. Click "OK". The cloud storage connection will appear in the "Catalog" pane, where the bucket structure can be explored.

   

5. From here you can add individual TIFFs to the map, export them to different image formats, etc.

Cyberduck is a free and open source cloud storage browser for Windows and Mac, with support for public S3 buckets. The instructions below are relevant on Windows, Mac setup is different.

1. Select "Open Connection".

2. Expand the "Connection Profiles" dropdown (that defaults to FTP) and select "More Options" at the bottom of the list. Search using "HTTPS" to find the S3 (HTTPS) connection profile. Select it, then close the "Preferences" window.

3. Add a "Server" of s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com, check the "Anonymous Login" checkbox and add a "Path" of nz-imagery.

   

4. Click "Connect". The top level of the bucket will be displayed and can be explored.

   

5. From here you can use "Get Info" to calculate the size of particular directories or datasets and right-click to "Download" or "Synchronize".