What EONET actually is
NASA's Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET) is a curated API that aggregates natural event reports from multiple scientific sources into a standardized JSON format. It covers 13 event categories including wildfires, severe storms, volcanoes, floods, earthquakes, sea and lake ice, landslides, snow, drought, dust and haze, temperature extremes, water color changes, and manmade events.
Unlike raw satellite data feeds that require specialized processing, EONET provides pre-curated event records with titles, categories, source attributions, geographic coordinates, timestamps, and open/closed status. This makes it accessible to web developers and application builders without requiring geospatial or remote sensing expertise.
API endpoints and query parameters
The EONET v3 API exposes two primary endpoints: /events for the event catalog and /categories for the category taxonomy. The events endpoint accepts parameters for filtering by status (open or closed), category, source, number of days to look back, and result limit. Each event contains an ID, title, description, link to the source, one or more geometry entries with coordinates and timestamps, and category and source arrays.
The geometry model is particularly important. Each geometry entry includes a date, type (Point or Polygon), and coordinate array. Events that move or grow over time (like hurricanes or spreading wildfires) have multiple geometry entries creating a timeline. This is how PlanetSentry builds event timelines and tracks how disasters evolve geographically.
- GET /api/v3/events — full event catalog with optional filters
- GET /api/v3/events/{id} — single event detail with complete geometry history
- GET /api/v3/categories — list of all event categories with descriptions
- Parameters: status, category, source, days, limit, start, end
How PlanetSentry normalizes EONET data
Raw EONET data is clean but still requires normalization for a production application. PlanetSentry's server-side adapter maps EONET categories to internal category IDs, extracts the most recent geometry for map placement, calculates event duration from first to last geometry timestamp, and merges EONET events with data from other sources like USGS and NOAA into a unified event model.
This normalization layer exists because no single data source covers everything well. EONET is broad but sometimes slow to reflect new events. USGS is fast and precise for earthquakes but covers nothing else. NOAA NHC is authoritative for tropical cyclones but limited geographically. By normalizing at the adapter level, the frontend works with a consistent data structure regardless of which source contributed the signal.
Limitations and what EONET does not cover
EONET is curated, not comprehensive. Events may appear hours or days after they begin because human editors review and categorize submissions. Some event types like flash floods or urban flooding are underrepresented because satellite detection is unreliable for these phenomena. The event catalog also does not include economic damage estimates, casualty figures, or humanitarian impact assessments — that is where GDACS and ReliefWeb fill the gap.
Understanding these limitations helps set correct expectations. PlanetSentry does not claim to show every disaster on Earth in real time. It shows what credible, authoritative sources have confirmed and categorized, updated as frequently as those sources publish. The goal is verified awareness, not comprehensive claim.