ee.Terrain.aspect

  • This function calculates aspect in degrees from a terrain Digital Elevation Model (DEM).

  • Missing values will occur around the edges of an image because the local gradient is computed using 4-connected neighbors.

  • The function ee.Terrain.aspect(input) takes an elevation image as input and returns an Image.

  • The returned aspect units are in degrees, where 0 is North, 90 is East, 180 is South, and 270 is West.

 Calculates aspect in degrees from a terrain DEM.

The local gradient is computed using the 4-connected neighbors of each pixel, so missing values will occur around the edges of an image.

UsageReturns
ee.Terrain.aspect(input)Image
ArgumentTypeDetails
inputImageAn elevation image, in meters.

Examples

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// Demonstrate ee.Terrain functions with single-image and collection DEMs.

// DEMs in Earth Engine are often distributed as single images per asset
// (e.g., NASA/NASADEM_HGT/001) or as collections of tiled images that need
// to be mosaicked (e.g., COPERNICUS/DEM/GLO30). Terrain analysis functions
// compute values based on neighboring pixels, so care must be taken to
// select and prepare DEM inputs appropriately.

// 1. Single DEM image asset.
// Assets like NASADEM are presented as single images covering large areas.
// They generally have a single projection and can be used in terrain analysis
// with no preprocessing.
var nasadem = ee.Image('NASA/NASADEM_HGT/001').select('elevation');

// Calculate aspect: degrees, 0=N, 90=E, 180=S, 270=W.
var nasademAspect = ee.Terrain.aspect(nasadem);

// Visualization parameters.
var elevationVis = {
  min: 0.0,
  max: 3000.0,
  palette:
      ['333399', '00a2e5', '55dd77', 'ffff99', 'aa926b', 'aa928d', 'ffffff']
};
var aspectVis = {min: 0.0, max: 359.99};

// Display layers.
Map.setCenter(-121.603, 47.702, 9);
Map.addLayer(nasadem, elevationVis, 'NASADEM Elevation', false);
Map.addLayer(nasademAspect, aspectVis, 'NASADEM Aspect');

// 2. Mosaicked DEM ImageCollection asset.
// In contrast to single-image assets like NASADEM, some DEMs like GLO30 are
// provided as a collection of images that need to be mosaicked before use.
// We use this mosaicked DEM for the terrain calculations below.
var glo30collection = ee.ImageCollection('COPERNICUS/DEM/GLO30');

// When mosaicking a DEM collection that will be used for terrain analysis,
// it is best practice to set the mosaic's default projection to the native
// projection of the DEM tiles. If you don't, Earth Engine's default
// projection for mosaics (EPSG:4326 at 1-degree scale) is used, which is
// often too coarse for analysis and can lead to resampling artifacts if
// the result is reprojected to a different CRS during computation.
// See:
// https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/guides/projections#reprojecting
var glo30Proj = glo30collection.first().projection();
var glo30Image =
    glo30collection.select('DEM').mosaic().setDefaultProjection(glo30Proj);

// Calculate aspect.
var glo30Aspect = ee.Terrain.aspect(glo30Image);

// Display layers.
Map.addLayer(glo30Image, elevationVis, 'GLO30 Elevation', false);
Map.addLayer(glo30Aspect, aspectVis, 'GLO30 Aspect');

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)

# Demonstrate ee.Terrain functions with single-image and collection DEMs.

# DEMs in Earth Engine are often distributed as single images per asset
# (e.g., NASA/NASADEM_HGT/001) or as collections of tiled images that need
# to be mosaicked (e.g., COPERNICUS/DEM/GLO30). Terrain analysis functions
# compute values based on neighboring pixels, so care must be taken to
# select and prepare DEM inputs appropriately.

# 1. Single DEM image asset.
# Assets like NASADEM are presented as single images covering large areas.
# They generally have a single projection and can be used in terrain analysis
# with no preprocessing.
nasadem = ee.Image('NASA/NASADEM_HGT/001').select('elevation')

# Calculate aspect: degrees, 0=N, 90=E, 180=S, 270=W.
nasadem_aspect = ee.Terrain.aspect(nasadem)

# Visualization parameters.
elevation_vis = {
    'min': 0.0,
    'max': 3000.0,
    'palette': [
        '333399',
        '00a2e5',
        '55dd77',
        'ffff99',
        'aa926b',
        'aa928d',
        'ffffff',
    ],
}
aspect_vis = {'min': 0.0, 'max': 359.99}

# Display layers.
m = geemap.Map()
m.set_center(-121.603, 47.702, 9)
m.add_layer(nasadem, elevation_vis, 'NASADEM Elevation', False)
m.add_layer(nasadem_aspect, aspect_vis, 'NASADEM Aspect')

# 2. Mosaicked DEM ImageCollection asset.
# In contrast to single-image assets like NASADEM, some DEMs like GLO30 are
# provided as a collection of images that need to be mosaicked before use.
# We use this mosaicked DEM for the terrain calculations below.
glo30_collection = ee.ImageCollection('COPERNICUS/DEM/GLO30')

# When mosaicking a DEM collection that will be used for terrain analysis,
# it is best practice to set the mosaic's default projection to the native
# projection of the DEM tiles. If you don't, Earth Engine's default
# projection for mosaics (EPSG:4326 at 1-degree scale) is used, which is
# often too coarse for analysis and can lead to resampling artifacts if
# the result is reprojected to a different CRS during computation.
# See:
# https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/guides/projections#reprojecting
glo30_proj = glo30_collection.first().projection()
glo30_image = (
    glo30_collection.select('DEM').mosaic().setDefaultProjection(glo30_proj)
)

# Calculate aspect.
glo30_aspect = ee.Terrain.aspect(glo30_image)

# Display layers.
m.add_layer(glo30_image, elevation_vis, 'GLO30 Elevation', False)
m.add_layer(glo30_aspect, aspect_vis, 'GLO30 Aspect')
m