Original title: Google Earth Engine: Planetary-scale geospatial analysis for everyone
Google Earth Engine is an online platform for analyzing information about places across the planet. It uses Google's computing power, so users do not need to run the analysis on their own supercomputer. The platform is meant for remote sensingGathering information about Earth from a distance, such as by using satellites. scientists and a wider group of people who may lack the technical resources for large-scale computing. Its stated uses include tracking forests, drought, climate, and water.
Imagine trying to sort every item in a huge warehouse using only the small table in your kitchen. The job is possible in principle, but the space and tools you have make it hard to handle everything. In this paper, the warehouse is the planet's geographic information, the kitchen table is a user's limited computing capacity, and Google's computing power helps people do the large-scale analysis.
Researchers and others who lack access to supercomputers or large cloud systems can still work with geospatial analysis at planetary scale. That can support work on issues such as deforestation, drought, disasters, food security, and climate monitoring.
The abstract describes the platform's purpose and possible areas of use, but gives no evaluation results, specific analysis methods, or details about access, costs, or practical constraints. It does not establish how well the platform performs on any particular issue.
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Google Earth Engine: Planetary-scale geospatial analysis for everyone — Noel Gorelick, M. Hancher, Mike Dixon et al. — Remote Sensing of Environment — doi:10.1016/j.rse.2017.06.031
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.