Title: Planetary-Scale Geospatial Analysis with Google Earth Engine

Presenter: David Thau PhD

Date: November 7

Registration: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3590796428752188161

Abstract:

Performing analyses on Earth observation data at large scales can be a time consuming and lonely task. Performing a satellite-based global analysis of deforestation, for example, requires downloading all the necessary satellite data, preprocessing it to suit a given algorithm or workflow, and then running the analysis on a desktop computer, or a cluster of CPUs. Depending on the scale of the data, the complexity of the workflow, and the capacity of the available hardware, each of these steps could take days, weeks, or years. Google Earth Engine greatly simplifies and expedites the process of analyzing Earth observation data. The platform provides a vast catalog of data, APIs for developing algorithms that can be run across the Google cloud, and tools for visualizing and interacting with data products via Web interfaces. This talk will introduce Earth Engine, describe how it works, and provide examples of how it is currently being applied to perform planetary-scale geospatial analysis.

Presenter: David Thau, PhD
Dave Thau helps scientists, NGOs, and other partners build software and algorithms that run on Google Earth Engine, Google's geo analysis platform. Prior to joining Google, Dave worked for many years helping ecologists and biodiversity researchers integrate their systems into distributed collaborative networks. Dave holds degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a doctorate in computer science from the University of California, Davis.