This is a beta service. If you would like to provide feedback or suggestions, please contact enquiries@bgs.ac.uk
This service provides an application programming interface (API) for data scientists, software developers and software applications to query and download BGS-hosted sensor data in machine-readable JSON format.
The API is powered by FROST Server and conforms to the OGC SensorThings API specification. See the documentation below for details.
Access the API
The API is powered by the FROST server and conforms to the OGC SensorThings API specification.
The OGC SensorThings API is an OGC standard specification for providing an open and unified way to interconnect IoT devices, data, and applications over the Web. The SensorThings API is an open standard, builds on Web protocols and the OGC Sensor Web Enablement standards, and applies an easy-to-use REST-like style.
SensorThings API provides access to up-to-date measurement information that is:
You can navigate through the API using the links provided within it, but the real power lies in the ability to write specific URLs to select, filter, link and format the information you require.
The OpenAPI specification documents the types of data that are available. The “Schemas” section describes the fields associated with each type of data. Most fields are as defined by the SensorThings standard, but within the JSON there is a ‘properties’ tag (‘parameters’ for observations) that contains the supplementary customised data required within BGS.
An overview of how to write url queries is available here.
The FROST Server documentation describes the SensorThings API data model and provides example requests for querying data. FROST Server is open source (GPLv3) and the code is available on GitHub.
The British Geological Survey (BGS) Sensor API uses Version v1.1 of the OGC SensorThings API. Explore the paths/endpoints and preview the API responses in this documentation.
This video tutorial (10 mins) explains how to use the API to query and plot data in Python.
The following links return JSON documents. You may need to install an extension to view them in your web browser.
If you have any questions or would like to provide feedback or suggestions, please contact enquiries@bgs.ac.uk
