Getting Started with Google Earth Engine

RadGEEToolbox requires access to Google Earth Engine (GEE) and proper authentication with the Python API.

For more details, see the official Google Earth Engine Python API Getting Started Guide or Python Installation Guide.

2. Install the Earth Engine Python API

The Earth Engine API is installed automatically when you install ``RadGEEToolbox``. However, if you would like to install manually:

pip install earthengine-api

3. Authenticate & Initialize

Prior to using the Earth Engine Python client library, you need to authenticate and use the resultant credentials to initialize the Python client. The authentication flows use Cloud Projects to authenticate, and they’re used for unpaid (free, noncommercial) use as well as paid use.

Run the following during your first use:

import ee
ee.Authenticate()

Note

Your GEE credentials will not permanently be stored on your PC and you will periodically need to re-run ee.Authenticate() when ee.Initialize() returns an authentication error.

ee.Authenticate() will select the best authentication mode for your environment, and prompt you to confirm access for your scripts. To initialize, you will need to provide a project that you own, or have permissions to use. This project will be used for running all Earth Engine operations:

ee.Initialize(project='my-project')

Replace 'my-project' with the name of the Google Cloud Project you created on sign-up or any Google Cloud Project that has the GEE API enabled.

4. Authentication Best Practices

It is reccomended to use the following authentication procedure once you have completed your initial authentication:

5. Troubleshooting

AttributeError: module ‘ee’ has no attribute ‘Initialize’

➤ Ensure that earthengine-api is installed properly.

403 Access Denied

➤ Your GEE account might not be approved, or the API is not enabled for your project.

Initialization fails

➤ Try using ee.Initialize(project='your-project-id') explicitly in case you are just calling ee.Initialize().

See the official GEE documentation for authentication »