Stanford Geospatial Center announces instant access to Google Earth Engine for Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability students!
The Stanford Geospatial Center at Branner Earth Sciences Library, in collaboration with Google's Earth Outreach Team, and Stanford Libraries' Research Data Services are proud to announce that Google Earth Engine is now available to all students of The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
This development makes Google Earth Engine's 70+ petabyte Data Catalog of Earth, Climate and Social data immediately available in a platform specifically designed for enabling critical research, at a global scale. "This partnership is part of Research Data Services' work to fulfill Stanford University's vision of democratizing access to shared research infrastructure," says Stace Maples, Stanford Libraries' Assistant Director of Geospatial Collections & Services, and head of the Stanford Geospatial Center. "Access to Earth and climate data, and more importantly our ability to manage, synthesize, and analyze those data, will be critical to the success of Stanford Doerr School's mission. Providing our students with access to tools like Google Earth Engine allows us to teach new researchers with the same data and tools they can use to create, implement and evaluate sustainability solutions, at global scales."
Google Earth Engine's Data Catalog is unparalleled in it's comprehensive cataloging and preprocessing of more that 600 authoritative, Public Domain Earth observation datasets, from LANDSAT's entire back catalog of multispectral imaging of the Earth, to the near real-time updated FIRMS:Fire Information for Resource Management System data, "Earth Engine's public data archive includes more than forty years of historical imagery and scientific datasets, updated and expanded daily."
Google Earth Engine's real power is pairing that 70+ petabyte Data Catalog with the processing power of Google's data centers, accessed through a set of user-friendly APIs and interfaces designed for research. Earth Engine's Javascript Code Editor "sandbox" provides new users with the ability quickly familiarize themselves with Earth observation data and how to use code to apply the platform's powerful tools at scales not possible before. The Python API provides users the ability to expand their use of Earth Engine and combine it with other powerful software libraries, while the new REST API allows developers to incorporate the power of Earth Engine into their own web-based applications.
If you are a student in the new Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, you can use this link and your [email protected] credentials to login and import the SGC's Google Earth Engine 101 sample scripts to start exploring, now! In addition to 70+ petabytes of public domain data, new users will find a git-enabled private script repository for saving and sharing their code and a 250 GB 'assets' bucket, where you can place you own data for use in Google Earth Engine. For a more complete introduction to Google Earth Engine, check out The Stanford Geospatial Center's Google Earth Engine 101 Workshop, that accompanies the sample scripts.
If you are not yet a member of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability community, but would like access to Google Earth Engine enabled for your school, department or lab, contact the Head of the Stanford Geospatial Center, Stace Maples, at [email protected] to find out more.
Google's Geo for Good Summit is an annual conference intended for nonprofits, scientists and other changemakers who want to leverage technology and use mapping tools (such as Google Earth, Earth Engine, Environmental Insights Explorer, and My Maps) for positive impact in the world.
The application deadline to attend the summit in-person has already passed, but this year there will be plenty of online, livestream and virtual elements to allow people not there in-person to connect and learn.
You can still register to attend virtually.
The Stanford Geospatial Center's Google Earth Engine 101 Workshop was developed from the original Google Earth Engine 101 materials. Now heavily commented, augmented with new experiments, and a live walk-through video including "A Very Tiny Introduction to Remote Sensing," the workshop provides a "Quick-start" introduction to Earth Engine, and the basics of understanding and working with remote sensing data.