ee.ImageCollection.sort

Sort a collection by the specified property.

Returns the sorted collection.

Usage	Returns
ImageCollection.sort(property, ascending)	Collection

Argument	Type	Details
this: collection	Collection	The Collection instance.
property	String	The property to sort by.
ascending	Boolean, optional	Whether to sort in ascending or descending order. The default is true (ascending).

Examples

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// A Landsat 8 TOA image collection (2 months of images at a specific point).
var col = ee.ImageCollection('LANDSAT/LC08/C02/T1_TOA')
  .filterBounds(ee.Geometry.Point(-90.70, 34.71))
  .filterDate('2020-07-01', '2020-09-01');
print('Collection', col);

// Sort the collection in ASCENDING order of image cloud cover.
var colCldSortAsc = col.sort('CLOUD_COVER');
print('Cloud cover ascending', colCldSortAsc);

// Display the image with the least cloud cover.
var visParams = {
  bands: ['B4', 'B3', 'B2'],
  min: 0.01,
  max: 0.25
};
Map.setCenter(-90.70, 34.71, 9);
Map.addLayer(colCldSortAsc.first(), visParams, 'Least cloudy');

// Sort the collection in DESCENDING order of image cloud cover.
var colCldSortDesc = col.sort('CLOUD_COVER', false);
print('Cloud cover descending', colCldSortDesc);

// Display the image with the most cloud cover.
Map.addLayer(colCldSortDesc.first(), visParams, 'Most cloudy');

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)

# A Landsat 8 TOA image collection (2 months of images at a specific point).
col = (
    ee.ImageCollection('LANDSAT/LC08/C02/T1_TOA')
    .filterBounds(ee.Geometry.Point(-90.70, 34.71))
    .filterDate('2020-07-01', '2020-09-01')
)
display('Collection', col)

# Sort the collection in ASCENDING order of image cloud cover.
col_cld_sort_asc = col.sort('CLOUD_COVER')
display('Cloud cover ascending', col_cld_sort_asc)

# Display the image with the least cloud cover.
vis_params = {'bands': ['B4', 'B3', 'B2'], 'min': 0.01, 'max': 0.25}
m = geemap.Map()
m.set_center(-90.70, 34.71, 9)
m.add_layer(col_cld_sort_asc.first(), vis_params, 'Least cloudy')

# Sort the collection in DESCENDING order of image cloud cover.
col_cld_sort_desc = col.sort('CLOUD_COVER', False)
display('Cloud cover descending', col_cld_sort_desc)

# Display the image with the most cloud cover.
m.add_layer(col_cld_sort_desc.first(), vis_params, 'Most cloudy')
m