By Julia Guo, Software Engineer & Sheba Rasson, Product Manager for Google Earth Engine Batch tasks enable the processing of large geospatial datasets and complex analyses that would be impossible to perform in real-time due to time and memory constraints. Running multiple batch tasks concurrently allows you to maximize the computational power you get out of Earth Engine. We want to help you manage these tasks more effectively and with greater transparency and control. With this goal in mind, we are thrilled to announce a set of new features to help you better manage and prioritize y ..read more

By Andréa P. Nicolau, Geospatial Data Scientist, Spatial Informatics Group, Earth Engine Google Developer Expert Monitoring the Earth’s surface has always depended on the availability of high-quality cloud-free imagery. Now, imagine trying to map and monitor land cover and land use in the world’s cloudiest spots. Nightmare, right? But fear not, with the recent launch of Cloud Score+ for Sentinel-2, the clouds are parting ways for clearer composites. In this post, we’ll dive into a case study that shines a light on how Cloud Score+ is revolutionizing land cover mapping in Imbabura, Ecuador. St ..read more

By Noel Gorelick, Chief Extraterrestrial Observer, and Tanya Birch, Sr. Program Manager, Google Earth Engine Today is International Day of Forests, a day designated by the United Nations to celebrate our world’s forests and their contributions to the planet. Forests are critical to nature and biodiversity, and play an important role in fighting climate change due to their ability to store carbon. Over the past decade, we’ve partnered with the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations on a number of efforts, including helping to reduce deforestation around the w ..read more

By Devaja Shah, Program Manager, Google Earth Outreach In northern Kenya, women belonging to the Samburu community are planting trees and clearing invasive species in lion habitats so that the lions can safely hide in thick bushes. The women’s lion habitat recovery efforts are made possible due to Ewaso Lions, a community-led conservation group dedicated to promoting peaceful coexistence between lions and people. Just 10 years ago, this mutual coexistence with lions was difficult to accomplish in Kenya — and certainly among the Samburu, a semi-nomadic community of pastoralists, known ..read more

By Simon Ilyushchenko, Google Earth Engine Data Tech Lead December is the month when the AGU (American Geophysical Union) conference is traditionally held. Over 100 AGU 2023 session abstracts mention the use of Google Earth Engine, and the Earth Engine team has a large presence at AGU. In this post we highlight one of our contributions. Earth Engine users often inquire about the accuracy of dataset replication in the Earth Engine Data Catalog. In collaboration with Brianna Pagan and Mahabal Hegde from NASA GES DISC, we delved into this critical question, presenting our findings in an AGU ..read more

JRC’s 2020 Global map of forest cover displayed in Google Earth Engine code editor. By Alicia Sullivan Product Manager & Tanya Birch Program Manager for Earth Engine On December 7th, as part of a meeting of the Multistakeholder Platform Expert Group, the Joint Research Centre released the 2020 Global map of forest cover. This map corresponds to the cut-off date set in the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which will require companies to provide statements affirming that goods sold or produced in the EU were not grown on land deforested after December 31, 2020. The 2 ..read more

Artist’s rendition of Landsat-8 orbiting a mosaic of Earth images. Credit: NASA By Justin Braaten, Developer Relations Engineer, Google Earth Engine Starting in the second half of 2024, Landsat Collection 1 (and Pre-Collection) datasets will no longer be available in the Earth Engine Data Catalog, and computed datasets like 32-day NDVI will be generated from Collection 2. After USGS stopped distribution of the data in 2021, Earth Engine has maintained Collection 1 access to provide users sufficient time to migrate to Collection 2. Now that usage of Collection 1 is very low, we are pr ..read more

By Valerie Pasquarella, Research Scientist, Geo Sustainability At Geo for Good 2023, we announced the launch of Cloud Score+, our solution to the Sentinel-2 cloud and cloud shadow detection problem. If you’ve ever worked with optical satellite imagery, you’re probably very familiar with clouds and their shadows. Clouds intersect incoming solar illumination, projecting their shadows onto the landscape below. Occlusion effects of clouds and cloud shadows In some cases, clouds are thick and completely block light being reflected from the surface. In other cases, clouds are high and thin, onl ..read more

The Earth Engine Python experience powers up, expanding its connectivity within the Python science ecosystem. Source: Google By Justin Braaten, Developer Relations; Alex Merose, Software Engineer; & Nate Schmitz, Software Engineer For the past 10 years, the JavaScript Code Editor has been the leading character in the Earth Engine story. Its purpose-built user interface, integrated map, drawing tools, console, inspector, and extensive documentation have overshadowed the Python API, its unadorned sidekick. However, a plot twist is brewing: the Earth Engine Python API is revealing n ..read more

By Devaja Shah, Program Manager, Google Earth Outreach Since the launch of Google Earth a couple of decades ago, and the launch of Earth Engine over a decade ago, both tools have been used to protect ecosystems, biodiversity, and other environmental resources, to mitigate climate change by reducing carbon emissions, to help people and nature adapt to the impacts of climate change. There have been incredible projects over the last decades with real-world impacts, from saving elephants to mapping mountaintop removal, from conserving ecosystems to protecting biodiversity, from mapping ..read more