API Reference

The API reference is divided into sections:

  • The Client Libraries section is the API reference for both JavaScript and Python clients.
  • The Code Editor section is the reference for functionality available through the Earth Engine Code Editor, an online IDE for Earth Engine JavaScript (learn more).
  • The REST API section is the reference for the Earth Engine restful API.

Client Libraries

The open source JavaScript and Python Client libraries (GitHub repo) translate Earth Engine code into request objects sent to Earth Engine servers. The Earth Engine API is identical between the two languages with minor exceptions including syntactic and other differences described here. See this reference for methods available through the client libraries:

  • The ee package for formulating requests to Earth Engine. See the example code for both JavaScript and Python on each method page.
  • Export of data to Google Drive, Cloud Storage or Earth Engine assets (learn more).

Code Editor

The Code Editor provides the Earth Engine JavaScript client library plus:

  • Display of geographic data on the Map.
  • The ui package for creating user interfaces for Earth Engine apps (learn more).
  • Other functions specific to the Code Editor (e.g. print()).

REST API

The REST API provides direct access to Earth Engine servers through HTTP. The reference describes available endpoints and the content of requests and responses. It also contains the REST Quickstart and other example workflows.