Jupyter Earth Data MCP server

The Jupyter Earth MCP Server is a Model Context Protocol implementation that enables geospatial analysis in Jupyter notebooks. It provides specialized tools for interacting with Earth data, particularly datasets from NASA Earthdata, allowing you to download and analyze geospatial information directly in your Jupyter environment.

Installation

Prerequisites

Before using the Jupyter Earth MCP Server, you need to have JupyterLab with collaboration features installed:

pip install jupyterlab==4.4.1 jupyter-collaboration==4.0.2 ipykernel
pip uninstall -y pycrdt datalayer_pycrdt
pip install datalayer_pycrdt==0.12.17

Starting JupyterLab

Start JupyterLab using the following command:

jupyter lab --port 8888 --IdentityProvider.token MY_TOKEN --ip 0.0.0.0

Alternatively, you can use:

make jupyterlab

The --ip 0.0.0.0 parameter allows the MCP server running in a Docker container to access your local JupyterLab.

Configuring with Claude Desktop

Installing Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop is available for different platforms:

• macOS and Windows: Download from claude.ai/download
• Linux: Use the UNOFFICIAL build script based on nix:

NIXPKGS_ALLOW_UNFREE=1 nix run github:k3d3/claude-desktop-linux-flake \
  --impure \
  --extra-experimental-features flakes \
  --extra-experimental-features nix-command

Configuration Setup

For macOS and Windows

Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jupyter-earth": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "SERVER_URL",
        "-e",
        "TOKEN",
        "-e",
        "NOTEBOOK_PATH",
        "datalayer/jupyter-earth-mcp-server:latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SERVER_URL": "http://host.docker.internal:8888",
        "TOKEN": "MY_TOKEN",
        "NOTEBOOK_PATH": "notebook.ipynb"
      }
    }
  }
}

For Linux

Create or modify your Claude configuration file:

CLAUDE_CONFIG=${HOME}/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
cat <<EOF > $CLAUDE_CONFIG
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jupyter-earth": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "SERVER_URL",
        "-e",
        "TOKEN",
        "-e",
        "NOTEBOOK_PATH",
        "--network=host",
        "datalayer/jupyter-earth-mcp-server:latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SERVER_URL": "http://localhost:8888",
        "TOKEN": "MY_TOKEN",
        "NOTEBOOK_PATH": "notebook.ipynb"
      }
    }
  }
}
EOF
cat $CLAUDE_CONFIG

Important: Ensure the port in SERVER_URL and the TOKEN match those used in your JupyterLab startup command. The NOTEBOOK_PATH should be relative to the directory where JupyterLab was started.

Using the MCP Server

Available Tools

The Jupyter Earth MCP Server currently offers one tool:

download_earth_data_granules

This tool adds a code cell in your Jupyter notebook to download Earth data granules from NASA Earth Data.

Parameters:

• folder_name (string): Local folder name to save the data
• short_name (string): Short name of the Earth dataset to download
• count (int): Number of data granules to download
• temporal (tuple, optional): Temporal range in the format (date_from, date_to)
• bounding_box (tuple, optional): Bounding box in the format (lower_left_lon, lower_left_lat, upper_right_lon, upper_right_lat)

Available Prompts

download_analyze_global_sea_level

This prompt template helps you ask Claude to download and analyze global sea level data in Jupyter.

Building from Source

If you want to build the Docker image from source:

make build-docker

How to add this MCP server to Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > MCP and click "Add new global MCP server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cursor-rules-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "cursor-rules-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explictly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.