API keys: where to get each one, and what it unlocks
Every key Terrain Viewer accepts in Settings, API Keys: Mapbox, MapTiler, HERE, Planet, Cesium ion, Google and the Copernicus Sentinel Hub instance id. What each unlocks, the page where you create it, and how the app keeps it out of links and builds.
Most of Terrain Viewer needs no account. A few sources do, and their keys go in Settings → API Keys. Each key stays in your browser (local storage): it is never sent anywhere but to its own provider, never put into a shared link or an exported source list, and never built into the website or the desktop app. A source that needs a key is saved with a placeholder such as {planetKey} or {shInstance}, which your own key fills when the tiles are requested, so a colleague opening your link uses theirs.
| Key | What it unlocks | Where to get it | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mapbox access token | Mapbox terrain and the Mapbox satellite basemap (a shared demo token is built in, replace it with yours for regular use) | console.mapbox.com, access tokens | Free tier |
| MapTiler API key | MapTiler terrain as a terrain source | cloud.maptiler.com, API keys (how) | Free tier |
| HERE API key | HERE Satellite as a basemap, hidden until set | platform.here.com, apps: create an app, then an API key | Free tier with a card |
| Planet API key | Planet Monthly Mosaics as a historical basemap, and the tiles of Planet scenes found in the catalogue search | planet.com, account settings (how) | Paid or research account |
| Planet access token | Searching Planet's own STAC catalogue, which takes a short-lived token rather than the key | pip install planet, planet auth login, then planet auth print-access-token; it lasts about 2 h 20 | Same account |
| Cesium ion access token | Cesium World Terrain and any ion terrain asset as a terrain source | ion.cesium.com, access tokens | Free tier |
| Google API key | The Google "Open in" destinations (Street View, the 3D area explorer); nothing on the map needs it | Google Cloud console, credentials (how) | Free tier with a card |
| Copernicus Sentinel Hub instance id | Copernicus Data Space scenes on the map: Sentinel-2 true colour by date from the catalogue search, and your configuration's layers in Add Basemap | Below | Free |
Copernicus Sentinel Hub instance id
The Copernicus Data Space catalogue is open, and the catalogue search lists its scenes for anyone. Its imagery is not open to a browser without an account. A free account gives you a Sentinel Hub "configuration" (also called an instance), whose id opens a map tile service for your account, and that service lets the viewer draw the scenes.
- Create a free account at dataspace.copernicus.eu (Login, then Register).
- Open the Sentinel Hub dashboard, Configuration Utility. Click New configuration, give it a name and start from a Sentinel-2 L2A template (the templates include the
TRUE_COLORlayer the catalogue search uses). An existing configuration works too, as long as it has aTRUE_COLORlayer. - Copy the configuration's ID (a long code like
xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx) and paste it in Settings → API Keys → Copernicus Sentinel Hub instance id.
Then:
- In the catalogue search, pick the Copernicus Data Space catalogue and a collection (it searches one collection at a time). Each Sentinel-2 scene gets a True colour via your Sentinel Hub button, which adds that day's imagery as a layer. Cloudy scenes are shown too: the button asks for every scene whatever its cloud cover.
- In Add Basemap → WMTS (list layers), the Copernicus Sentinel Hub (your configuration) button lists every layer of your configuration (true colour, false colour, NDVI, single bands and the rest), with a date to choose.
The id works on its own, without a password: treat it like a key and do not paste it in public. Sentinel Hub counts the tiles against your account's free monthly quota (CDSE quotas); a configuration can be deleted and recreated if its id ever leaks. More on the services: Sentinel Hub authentication on CDSE.
Other services that need an account
- OpenTopography global datasets are read without a key from their public bucket. Its API (not used by the viewer) takes a key from the OpenTopography portal.
- Titiler, the tile server some sources go through, is a URL rather than a key: Settings, Titiler Endpoint, with
https://titiler.xyzby default.
The rest of the app's sources need nothing: Mapterhorn, AWS terrain tiles, the national LiDAR models, Esri Wayback, Google Earth historical imagery and Timelapse, and the open STAC catalogues.
Catalog search
Finding data you have no URL for, from the Add Terrain and Add Basemap dialogs - STAC catalogs and APIs, NextGIS QMS and the OSM Editor Layer Index - and the app's own sources published as STAC
nDSM and DEM Difference
Subtract a DTM from a DSM for a normalised digital surface model (building and tree heights), or two dates for elevation change, in the browser from any two sources, with the offset auto-aligned.