Daymet Single Pixel Extraction Tool API

{
  "service_type": "platform",
  "base_url": "https://daymet.ornl.gov",
  "auth_method": "none",
  "auth_config": {},
  "endpoints": [
    {
      "name": "single_pixel_daily",
      "method": "GET",
      "path": "/single-pixel/",
      "description": "Retrieve daily surface data (Daymet v4) for a single geographic point. Returns CSV or JSON depending on the file extension requested (e.g., /single-pixel/data.csv or /single-pixel/data.json).",
      "parameters": {
        "lat": "Latitude of the point",
        "lon": "Longitude of the point",
        "start": "Start date (YYYY-MM-DD)",
        "end": "End date (YYYY-MM-DD)",
        "vars": "Comma-separated variables (e.g., tmax,tmin,prcp,srad,swe,vp,dayl)",
        "format": "csv or json (specified via URL extension)"
      },
      "notes": "Parameters and exact path may vary; consult the Daymet documentation for the authoritative specification."
    }
  ],
  "pricing_model": {
    "type": "free",
    "details": {
      "notes": "Publicly funded by NASA/ORNL; API access is provided free of charge for scientific and public use."
    }
  },
  "rate_limits": {
    "notes": "No published hard rate limits; usage governed by fair-use expectations for an academic/research service."
  },
  "capabilities": [
    "Retrieve daily gridded meteorological/surface data for a single point",
    "Supports Daymet variables: tmax, tmin, prcp, srad, swe, vp, dayl",
    "Output in CSV or JSON format",
    "Time-series extraction over user-specified date range",
    "Point-based geospatial data querying"
  ],
  "raw_analysis": "The Daymet Single Pixel Extraction Tool API is a public scientific data service maintained by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for NASA's Daymet project. It provides access to daily gridded surface meteorological data (maximum/minimum temperature, precipitation, shortwave radiation, snow water equivalent, vapor pressure, and day length) at 1 km spatial resolution covering North America.\n\nPurpose and audience: The API serves climate scientists, ecologists, hydrologists, agronomists, and other researchers who need historical daily weather data for specific point locations. It is fundamentally a research instrument rather than a commercial product.\n\nAPI characteristics: The service accepts latitude/longitude plus a date range and variable selection, returning CSV or JSON time series for that single point. There is no authentication or API key requirement, and no cost — the platform assumes requests come from legitimate users. The base URL provided (ornl.gov:daymet) appears malformed; the canonical service lives at daymet.ornl.gov.\n\nMaturity and integrations: Daymet is a long-standing (since 1980 data coverage) and widely cited dataset. It is integrated into tools like NASA Earthdata, Google Earth Engine, and various R/Python client libraries (e.g., daymetr). The Single Pixel Extraction Tool is one of several access methods, alongside bulk download and web interfaces.\n\nLimitations: The API is optimized for single-point extraction, not bulk spatial queries; high-volume users are typically directed to alternative Daymet access paths. No formal SLA or rate-limit documentation is published, consistent with its academic-service nature."
}

2/3 tests passed

{
  "overall": 63,
  "dimensions": {
    "token_efficiency": 8.0,
    "first_try_success": 5.0,
    "response_parseability": 8.5,
    "error_clarity": 6.0,
    "doc_quality": 7.0,
    "auth_simplicity": 10.0,
    "latency": 10.0,
    "consistency": 7.5
  },
  "pricing_normalized": {
    "model": "free",
    "cost_per_request_usd": 0,
    "notes": "NASA/ORNL publicly funded gridded climate data; no auth or quota mentioned in scan."
  },
  "issues": [
    "llms.txt returns HTTP 500 — no machine-readable capability manifest for agent discovery",
    "robots.txt disallows /data/, /thredds/, /ftp/, /gridded/ — the primary data-serving paths are off-limits to crawlers, which can confuse or block agents that respect robots",
    "Auth/onboarding flow not expressed in the scan — unclear whether API access requires registration or key issuance",
    "Only one retrieval pattern (single-point time-series) is exposed, so general spatial queries are not supported by the API endpoint"
  ],
  "recommendations": [
    "Serve a /llms.txt with capability description, endpoint syntax, variable list, and rate limits so agents can self-discover the API",
    "Relax robots.txt for API/data paths that are intended for programmatic use, or add explicit Allow rules for agent user-agents",
    "Publish OpenAPI/Swagger spec for the single-pixel API to improve parseability and first-try success",
    "Add a one-page quickstart with a copy-paste curl example and expected CSV/JSON schema",
    "Document throttling, date-range caps, and error codes on a status/docs page so agents can handle failures gracefully"
  ]
}