title: MCP4RS Open Earth Explorer emoji: 🛰️ colorFrom: blue colorTo: green sdk: gradio sdk_version: "6.20.0" python_version: "3.11" app_file: app.py pinned: false tags:

• mcp

• remote-sensing

• earth-observation

• stac

• geospatial

MCP4RS: Open Earth Remote Sensing MCP

Ask the Earth a question: discover, analyze, and explain open satellite data through MCP.

Provenance & attribution. The MCP server in this repository is derived from the original remote-sensing MCP server authored by Dongping Liu (from the Hainan land-sea SAR project), developed with Luyao Zhang. It is MIT-licensed; the original copyright notice is retained in LICENSE, and authorship is noted in the server.py header.

Overview

This repository provides two local run modes:

1. Gradio web app with MCP endpoint, launched from app.py.

2. MCP stdio server for local MCP clients, launched from server.py.

Use the app mode if you want a browser UI. Use stdio mode if you want to connect tools directly from an MCP client.

Related MCP server: Planetary Computer MCP Server

Local deployment prerequisites

• Linux, macOS, or Windows with Python 3.11+.

• pip available in your shell.

• Network access for remote open-data catalogs (STAC/NASA GIBS).

1) Set up a local Python environment

From the repository root:

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Optional quick syntax check:

python -m py_compile app.py server.py stac_convert.py

2) Run the Gradio app locally

Start the app:

python app.py

By default, Gradio serves locally (typically on http://127.0.0.1:7860).

This app launches with mcp_server=True, so you get both:

• Web UI for interactive use.

• MCP HTTP endpoint exposed by Gradio at:

  • http://127.0.0.1:7860/gradio_api/mcp/

  • http://127.0.0.1:7860/gradio_api/mcp/schema

3) Run the MCP stdio server locally

If your MCP client expects a local command-based server, run:

python server.py

This starts the FastMCP server over stdio (no browser UI).

Example MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp4rs-open-earth-local": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/mcp4rs-open-earth/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

4) Validate local deployment

After launching python app.py:

1. Open the local URL shown in terminal (usually http://127.0.0.1:7860).

2. In the UI, run Sources to confirm tool invocation works.

3. Test a simple query in Search Sentinel-2 with a known bbox/date.

For stdio mode (python server.py), validate by connecting from your MCP client and calling list_sources.

5) Optional extra dependencies for real raster computation

The analysis tools have stub fallbacks when heavy raster libs are missing. To enable real raster-based execution for segment_water and spectral_index, install:

python -m pip install rasterio numpy

Troubleshooting

• ModuleNotFoundError: pystac_client:

  • Re-run python -m pip install -r requirements.txt.

• Port already in use:

  • Stop the previous process or run in a clean terminal session.

• Empty search results:

  • Use a valid bbox/date range and relax cloud-cover threshold.

• Planetary Computer signed URLs not applied:

  • Install optional package: python -m pip install planetary-computer.

Production note

This repository is configured for Hugging Face Spaces with Gradio MCP support, but the commands above are the recommended path for local deployment and testing.