Google Earth Engine: Reference

Key Points

GEE Access and JavaScript Tips
  • Anyone can sign up for Google Earth Engine, just apply to be a trusted tester.

  • The Code Editor is a user friendly access point for Earth Engine that uses the JavaScript IDE.

  • JavaScript is a programming language that is also widely used in web development.

Introduction to Google Earth Engine
  • Google Earth Engine is a powerful tool for analyzing remote sensing imagery.

  • GEE’s data catalog hosts a formidable variety of earth observation data.

  • GEE is changing how we understand and study the Earth.

Code Editor
  • The Code Editor is a one stop shop for accessing GEE data catalog and conducting geospatial analysis.

  • You can use the code editor to develop, share and manage scripts.

  • You can use the code editor to import, export, share and manage your own personal raster and vector datasets

  • Use the Docs tab, Example scripts and the HELP button to access the User Guides and Help Forum

Accessing Satellite Imagery
  • Regional satellite data can be accessed by loading a full image collection and filtering based on criteria such as time period and location

  • Images can be manipulated similar to raster math, and new bands can be calculated by mapping functions over image collections

  • Image composites can be generated quite quickly

  • Images and tables can be exported for future use within GEE or for outside software

Temporal and Spatial Reducers
  • GEE hosts a wide variety of useful spatial datasets

  • Reducers aggregate or summarize data in space and time

  • There are several ways to use vector data in GEE

  • Results can be exported to Google Drive or Google Cloud

Supervised Classification of Satellite Imagery
  • GEE can be used for both supervised and unsupervised image classification.

  • The general workflow for classification includes gathering training data, creating a classifier, training the classifier, classifying the image, and then estimate error with an independent validation dataset.

  • Confusion matrices can be used to assess the accuracy of supervised classifiers but should be used with caution.

Time Series
  • Time series data can be extracted and plotted from Image Collections for points and regions.

  • GEE has increasing functionality for making interactive plots.

  • The User Interface can be modified through the addition of widget.

Wrap-Up
  • Google Earth Engine is a planetary-scale geospatial analysis platform.

  • The Developers Guide has wide collection of documentation and example codes.

  • The Developers Forum can be used to post questions or answer questions about GEE code.

  • The Code Editor and GEE website contain many resources including the data catalog, code documentation and places for user feedback.

FIXME: more reference material.