ee.Terrain.slope

  • The ee.Terrain.slope function calculates slope in degrees from a terrain digital elevation model (DEM).

  • The local gradient is computed using the 4-connected neighbors of each pixel, which results in missing values around the edges of an image.

  • The function takes an elevation image as input and returns an image representing the slope.

  • Examples are provided in both JavaScript and Python for calculating and displaying slope and aspect, as well as using ee.Terrain.products to calculate multiple terrain derivatives simultaneously.

 Calculates slope in degrees from a terrain DEM.

The local gradient is computed using the 4-connected neighbors of each pixel, so missing values will occur around the edges of an image.

UsageReturns
ee.Terrain.slope(input)Image
ArgumentTypeDetails
inputImageAn elevation image, in meters.

Examples

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// A digital elevation model.
var dem = ee.Image('NASA/NASADEM_HGT/001').select('elevation');

// Calculate slope. Units are degrees, range is [0,90).
var slope = ee.Terrain.slope(dem);

// Calculate aspect. Units are degrees where 0=N, 90=E, 180=S, 270=W.
var aspect = ee.Terrain.aspect(dem);

// Display slope and aspect layers on the map.
Map.setCenter(-123.457, 47.815, 11);
Map.addLayer(slope, {min: 0, max: 89.99}, 'Slope');
Map.addLayer(aspect, {min: 0, max: 359.99}, 'Aspect');

// Use the ee.Terrain.products function to calculate slope, aspect, and
// hillshade simultaneously. The output bands are appended to the input image.
// Hillshade is calculated based on illumination azimuth=270, elevation=45.
var terrain = ee.Terrain.products(dem);
print('ee.Terrain.products bands', terrain.bandNames());
Map.addLayer(terrain.select('hillshade'), {min: 0, max: 255}, 'Hillshade');

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 digital elevation model.
dem = ee.Image('NASA/NASADEM_HGT/001').select('elevation')

# Calculate slope. Units are degrees, range is [0,90).
slope = ee.Terrain.slope(dem)

# Calculate aspect. Units are degrees where 0=N, 90=E, 180=S, 270=W.
aspect = ee.Terrain.aspect(dem)

# Display slope and aspect layers on the map.
m = geemap.Map()
m.set_center(-123.457, 47.815, 11)
m.add_layer(slope, {'min': 0, 'max': 89.99}, 'Slope')
m.add_layer(aspect, {'min': 0, 'max': 359.99}, 'Aspect')

# Use the ee.Terrain.products function to calculate slope, aspect, and
# hillshade simultaneously. The output bands are appended to the input image.
# Hillshade is calculated based on illumination azimuth=270, elevation=45.
terrain = ee.Terrain.products(dem)
display('ee.Terrain.products bands', terrain.bandNames())
m.add_layer(terrain.select('hillshade'), {'min': 0, 'max': 255}, 'Hillshade')
m