Google Earth Engine (GEE) is a cloud computing platform designed for analysing geospatial and Earth Observation (EO) data. Most publicly avaiable satellite remote sensing data is readily available and GEE provides you with the tools to access and analyse this data using Google's cloud infrastructure. This allows users to perform complex raster-based analysis quickly and efficiently from any computer with a good internet connection. Many pre-processing steps are already taken care of so the data available is analysis ready, saving even more time. The great thing is using GEE is free for research and non-profit organistations.
I've found GEE particarly useful for my own research, creating pre-processed raster composite images at macro scales (incorporating ~ 1000+ images at a time) to incorporate in python workflows to produce classification outputs. This saves considerable time spent downloading and pre-processing data and avoids constraints on computing resources. The aim of this workshop is to provide you with the fundamental knowldge to consider using GEE for your own geospatial research, focusing on raster-based analysis.
This is broken down into 3 sessions:
- Intoduction to the GEE code editor, image collections, images and visualisation.
- Image functions, indices, colour palettes and exporting data.
- Importing data and image classification.
The resources for these sessions can be found in the resources folder in this repo. These practical sessions require that users have a GEE account to follow along with the exercises. See below for instructions on creating an GEE account.
- Go to Google Earth Engine
- Navigate to sign up in the top right corner of the page.
- Fill in your details using some of the following details:
- EMAIL: Use a google account email
- INSTITUTION TYPE: Academia or Research
- WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACCOMPLISH WITH EARTH ENGINE: I am taking part in a practical introductory workshop at the University of Auckland to learn how to use GEE.
- Once registered you will receive an email titled ‘Welcome to Google Earth Engine’ with instructions on getting started. Sometimes this can be sent to your spam and sometimes your account is activated before the email is sent.
- It’s worth checking to see if you’re account has been activated after 72 hours by heading to Google Earth Engine and navigating to Platform > Code Editor to see if you have access.
Look forward to seeing at the session! In the mean time feel free to browse the resources and check out the video below for a nice summary of the GEE platform.
