Arrays and Array Images

Arrays in Earth Engine are constructed from lists of numbers and lists of lists. The degree of nesting determines the number of dimensions. To get started with a simple, motivated example, consider the following example of an Array created from Landsat 8 tasseled cap (TC) coefficients (Baig et al., 2014):

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// Create an Array of Tasseled Cap coefficients.
var coefficients = ee.Array([
  [0.3029, 0.2786, 0.4733, 0.5599, 0.508, 0.1872],
  [-0.2941, -0.243, -0.5424, 0.7276, 0.0713, -0.1608],
  [0.1511, 0.1973, 0.3283, 0.3407, -0.7117, -0.4559],
  [-0.8239, 0.0849, 0.4396, -0.058, 0.2013, -0.2773],
  [-0.3294, 0.0557, 0.1056, 0.1855, -0.4349, 0.8085],
  [0.1079, -0.9023, 0.4119, 0.0575, -0.0259, 0.0252],
]);

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)

# Create an Array of Tasseled Cap coefficients.
coefficients = ee.Array([
    [0.3029, 0.2786, 0.4733, 0.5599, 0.508, 0.1872],
    [-0.2941, -0.243, -0.5424, 0.7276, 0.0713, -0.1608],
    [0.1511, 0.1973, 0.3283, 0.3407, -0.7117, -0.4559],
    [-0.8239, 0.0849, 0.4396, -0.058, 0.2013, -0.2773],
    [-0.3294, 0.0557, 0.1056, 0.1855, -0.4349, 0.8085],
    [0.1079, -0.9023, 0.4119, 0.0575, -0.0259, 0.0252],
])

Confirm that this is a 6x6, 2-D Array using length(), which will return the lengths of each axis:

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// Print the dimensions.
print(coefficients.length()); //    [6,6]

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)

# Print the dimensions.
display(coefficients.length())  #    [6,6]

The following table illustrates the arrangement of the matrix entries along the 0-axis and the 1-axis:

1-axis ->
012345
00.30290.27860.47330.55990.5080.1872
1-0.2941-0.243-0.54240.72760.0713-0.1608
0-axis20.15110.19730.32830.3407-0.7117-0.4559
3-0.82390.08490.4396-0.0580.2013-0.2773
4-0.32940.05570.10560.1855-0.43490.8085
50.1079-0.90230.41190.0575-0.02590.0252

The indices on the left of the table indicate positions along the 0-axis. The n-th element within each list on the 0-axis is in the n-th position along the 1-axis. For example, the entry at coordinate [3,1] of the array is 0.0849. Suppose ‘greenness’ is the TC component of interest. You can get the greenness sub-matrix using slice():

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// Get the 1x6 greenness slice, display it.
var greenness = coefficients.slice({axis: 0, start: 1, end: 2, step: 1});
print(greenness);

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)

# Get the 1x6 greenness slice, display it.
greenness = coefficients.slice(axis=0, start=1, end=2, step=1)
display(greenness)

The 2-D greenness matrix should look something like:

[[-0.2941,-0.243,-0.5424,0.7276,0.0713,-0.1608]]

Observe that the start and end parameters of slice() correspond to the 0-axis indices displayed in the table (start is inclusive and end is exclusive).

Array Images

To get a greenness image, matrix multiply the bands of a Landsat 8 image by the greenness matrix. To do that, first convert the multi-band Landsat image into an “Array Image”, where each pixel is an Array of band values. For example:

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// Load a Landsat 8 image, select the bands of interest.
var image = ee.Image('LANDSAT/LC08/C02/T1_TOA/LC08_044034_20140318')
  .select(['B2', 'B3', 'B4', 'B5', 'B6', 'B7']);

// Make an Array Image, with a 1-D Array per pixel.
var arrayImage1D = image.toArray();

// Make an Array Image with a 2-D Array per pixel, 6x1.
var arrayImage2D = arrayImage1D.toArray(1);

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)

# Load a Landsat 8 image, select the bands of interest.
image = ee.Image('LANDSAT/LC08/C02/T1_TOA/LC08_044034_20140318').select(
    ['B2', 'B3', 'B4', 'B5', 'B6', 'B7']
)

# Make an Array Image, with a 1-D Array per pixel.
array_image_1d = image.toArray()

# Make an Array Image with a 2-D Array per pixel, 6x1.
array_image_2d = array_image_1d.toArray(1)

In this example, note that toArray() converts image to an array image in which each pixel is a 1-D vector, the entries of which correspond to the 6 values at the corresponding positions in the bands of image. An array image of 1-D vectors created in this manner has no concept of 2-D shape. To perform 2-D only operations such as matrix multiplication, convert it into a 2-D array per-pixel image with toArray(1). In each pixel of the 2-D array image, there is a 6x1 matrix of band values. To see this, consider the following toy example:

Code Editor (JavaScript)

var array1D = ee.Array([1, 2, 3]);              // [1,2,3]
var array2D = ee.Array.cat([array1D], 1);     // [[1],[2],[3]]

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)

array_1d = ee.Array([1, 2, 3])  # [1,2,3]
array_2d = ee.Array.cat([array_1d], 1)  # [[1],[2],[3]]

Observe that the array1D vector varies along the 0-axis. The array2D matrix does as well, but it’s got an extra dimension. Calling toArray(1) on the array image is like calling cat(bandVector, 1) on every pixel. Using the 2-D array image, left multiply by an image where each pixel contains a 2-D matrix of greenness coefficients:

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// Do a matrix multiplication: 1x6 times 6x1.
// Cast the greenness Array to an Image prior to multiplication.
var greennessArrayImage = ee.Image(greenness).matrixMultiply(arrayImage2D);

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)

# Do a matrix multiplication: 1x6 times 6x1.
# Cast the greenness Array to an Image prior to multiplication.
greenness_array_image = ee.Image(greenness).matrixMultiply(array_image_2d)

The result is a new array image where every pixel is the 1x1 matrix that results from matrix multiplying the 1x6 greenness matrix (left) and the 6x1 band matrix (right). For display purposes, convert to a regular, one-band image with arrayGet():

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// Get the result from the 1x1 array in each pixel of the 2-D array image.
var greennessImage = greennessArrayImage.arrayGet([0, 0]);

// Display the input imagery with the greenness result.
Map.setCenter(-122.3, 37.562, 10);
Map.addLayer(image, {bands: ['B5', 'B4', 'B3'], min: 0, max: 0.5}, 'image');
Map.addLayer(greennessImage, {min: -0.1, max: 0.13}, 'greenness');

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)

# Get the result from the 1x1 array in each pixel of the 2-D array image.
greenness_image = greenness_array_image.arrayGet([0, 0])

# Display the input imagery with the greenness result.
m = geemap.Map()
m.set_center(-122.3, 37.562, 10)
m.add_layer(image, {'bands': ['B5', 'B4', 'B3'], 'min': 0, 'max': 0.5}, 'image')
m.add_layer(greenness_image, {'min': -0.1, 'max': 0.13}, 'greenness')
m

Here is a complete example, which uses the entire coefficients array to compute multiple tasseled cap components at once and display the result:

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// Define an Array of Tasseled Cap coefficients.
var coefficients = ee.Array([
  [0.3029, 0.2786, 0.4733, 0.5599, 0.508, 0.1872],
  [-0.2941, -0.243, -0.5424, 0.7276, 0.0713, -0.1608],
  [0.1511, 0.1973, 0.3283, 0.3407, -0.7117, -0.4559],
  [-0.8239, 0.0849, 0.4396, -0.058, 0.2013, -0.2773],
  [-0.3294, 0.0557, 0.1056, 0.1855, -0.4349, 0.8085],
  [0.1079, -0.9023, 0.4119, 0.0575, -0.0259, 0.0252],
]);

// Load a Landsat 8 image, select the bands of interest.
var image = ee.Image('LANDSAT/LC08/C02/T1_TOA/LC08_044034_20140318')
  .select(['B2', 'B3', 'B4', 'B5', 'B6', 'B7']);

// Make an Array Image, with a 1-D Array per pixel.
var arrayImage1D = image.toArray();

// Make an Array Image with a 2-D Array per pixel, 6x1.
var arrayImage2D = arrayImage1D.toArray(1);

// Do a matrix multiplication: 6x6 times 6x1.
var componentsImage = ee.Image(coefficients)
  .matrixMultiply(arrayImage2D)
  // Get rid of the extra dimensions.
  .arrayProject([0])
  .arrayFlatten(
    [['brightness', 'greenness', 'wetness', 'fourth', 'fifth', 'sixth']]);

// Display the first three bands of the result and the input imagery.
var vizParams = {
  bands: ['brightness', 'greenness', 'wetness'],
  min: -0.1, max: [0.5, 0.1, 0.1]
};
Map.setCenter(-122.3, 37.562, 10);
Map.addLayer(image, {bands: ['B5', 'B4', 'B3'], min: 0, max: 0.5}, 'image');
Map.addLayer(componentsImage, vizParams, 'components');

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 an Array of Tasseled Cap coefficients.
coefficients = ee.Array([
    [0.3029, 0.2786, 0.4733, 0.5599, 0.508, 0.1872],
    [-0.2941, -0.243, -0.5424, 0.7276, 0.0713, -0.1608],
    [0.1511, 0.1973, 0.3283, 0.3407, -0.7117, -0.4559],
    [-0.8239, 0.0849, 0.4396, -0.058, 0.2013, -0.2773],
    [-0.3294, 0.0557, 0.1056, 0.1855, -0.4349, 0.8085],
    [0.1079, -0.9023, 0.4119, 0.0575, -0.0259, 0.0252],
])

# Load a Landsat 8 image, select the bands of interest.
image = ee.Image('LANDSAT/LC08/C02/T1_TOA/LC08_044034_20140318').select(
    ['B2', 'B3', 'B4', 'B5', 'B6', 'B7']
)

# Make an Array Image, with a 1-D Array per pixel.
array_image_1d = image.toArray()

# Make an Array Image with a 2-D Array per pixel, 6x1.
array_image_2d = array_image_1d.toArray(1)

# Do a matrix multiplication: 6x6 times 6x1.
components_image = (
    ee.Image(coefficients)
    .matrixMultiply(array_image_2d)
    # Get rid of the extra dimensions.
    .arrayProject([0])
    .arrayFlatten(
        [['brightness', 'greenness', 'wetness', 'fourth', 'fifth', 'sixth']]
    )
)

# Display the first three bands of the result and the input imagery.
viz_params = {
    'bands': ['brightness', 'greenness', 'wetness'],
    'min': -0.1,
    'max': [0.5, 0.1, 0.1],
}
m = geemap.Map()
m.set_center(-122.3, 37.562, 10)
m.add_layer(image, {'bands': ['B5', 'B4', 'B3'], 'min': 0, 'max': 0.5}, 'image')
m.add_layer(components_image, viz_params, 'components')
m

Note that when getting bands from an array image, first get rid of the extra dimensions with project(), then convert it back to a regular image with arrayFlatten(). The output should look something like:

tasseled cap image
Figure 1. Tasseled cap components “brightness” (red), “greenness” (green), and “wetness” (blue).