ee.Geometry.LineString.geodesic

  • LineString.geodesic() is a method in Earth Engine that determines whether a LineString's edges are rendered as straight or curved on the Earth's surface.

  • It returns true if the edges follow the shortest path on the Earth's surface (geodesic) and false if they are rendered as straight lines.

  • This method is applicable to LineString geometry objects and can be used to visually represent lines more accurately on a map, especially over long distances.

 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
LineString.geodesic()Boolean
ArgumentTypeDetails
this: geometryGeometry

Examples

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// Define a LineString object.
var lineString = ee.Geometry.LineString([[-122.09, 37.42], [-122.08, 37.43]]);

// Apply the geodesic method to the LineString object.
var lineStringGeodesic = lineString.geodesic();

// Print the result to the console.
print('lineString.geodesic(...) =', lineStringGeodesic);

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

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 LineString object.
linestring = ee.Geometry.LineString([[-122.09, 37.42], [-122.08, 37.43]])

# Apply the geodesic method to the LineString object.
linestring_geodesic = linestring.geodesic()

# Print the result.
display('linestring.geodesic(...) =', linestring_geodesic)

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