ee.Geometry.Point.geodesic

  • The geodesic() method, available for Point geometries in Earth Engine, determines whether edges are rendered as straight lines or curved to follow the Earth's curvature.

  • It returns a boolean value: true for curved (geodesic) edges and false for straight edges in projections.

  • Usage involves calling the method on a Point object (point.geodesic()), which inherently defaults to false unless otherwise specified.

  • Provided examples showcase the implementation of this method in both JavaScript and Python environments within the Earth Engine Code Editor and Google Colab.

 If false, edges are straight in the projection. If true, edges are curved to follow the shortest path on the surface of the Earth.

UsageReturns
Point.geodesic()Boolean
ArgumentTypeDetails
this: geometryGeometry

Examples

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// Define a Point object.
var point = ee.Geometry.Point(-122.082, 37.42);

// Apply the geodesic method to the Point object.
var pointGeodesic = point.geodesic();

// Print the result to the console.
print('point.geodesic(...) =', pointGeodesic);

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

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 Point object.
point = ee.Geometry.Point(-122.082, 37.42)

# Apply the geodesic method to the Point object.
point_geodesic = point.geodesic()

# Print the result.
display('point.geodesic(...) =', point_geodesic)

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