ee.Geometry.edgesAreGeodesics

  • This function, edgesAreGeodesics(), determines if the edges of a geometry are treated as geodesics (curved lines following the Earth's curvature) or straight lines in the projection.

  • It returns true if the edges are geodesics, indicating they follow the Earth's curvature, and false if they are straight lines.

  • The function is applied to a Geometry object and returns a boolean value.

  • It's useful for understanding how the geometry's edges are interpreted in calculations and visualizations on the Earth's surface.

 Returns true if the geometry edges, if any, are geodesics along a spherical model of the earth; if false, any edges are straight lines in the projection.

UsageReturns
Geometry.edgesAreGeodesics()Boolean
ArgumentTypeDetails
this: geometryGeometry

Examples

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// Define a Geometry object.
var geometry = ee.Geometry({
  'type': 'Polygon',
  'coordinates':
    [[[-122.081, 37.417],
      [-122.086, 37.421],
      [-122.084, 37.418],
      [-122.089, 37.416]]]
});

// Apply the edgesAreGeodesics method to the Geometry object.
var geometryEdgesAreGeodesics = geometry.edgesAreGeodesics();

// Print the result to the console.
print('geometry.edgesAreGeodesics(...) =', geometryEdgesAreGeodesics);

// Display relevant geometries on the map.
Map.setCenter(-122.085, 37.422, 15);
Map.addLayer(geometry,
             {'color': 'black'},
             'Geometry [black]: geometry');

Python setup

See the Python Environment page for information on the Python API and using geemap for interactive development.

import ee
import geemap.core as geemap

Colab (Python)

# Define a Geometry object.
geometry = ee.Geometry({
    'type': 'Polygon',
    'coordinates': [[
        [-122.081, 37.417],
        [-122.086, 37.421],
        [-122.084, 37.418],
        [-122.089, 37.416],
    ]],
})

# Apply the edgesAreGeodesics method to the Geometry object.
geometry_edges_are_geodesics = geometry.edgesAreGeodesics()

# Print the result.
display('geometry.edgesAreGeodesics(...) =', geometry_edges_are_geodesics)

# Display relevant geometries on the map.
m = geemap.Map()
m.set_center(-122.085, 37.422, 15)
m.add_layer(geometry, {'color': 'black'}, 'Geometry [black]: geometry')
m