Climate Engine

ClimateEngine.org empowers users of all technical proficiencies to harness the power of cloud computing to analyze decades of Earth Observations data.

Started through the White House Climate Data Initiative and a Google Faculty Research Award, ClimateEngine.org now plays an essential role in Earth science research and government agency decision-support and is relied upon by thousands of users each month.

Collectively, the app, API, and reports are a powerful set of tools that bring together climate and remote sensing data to allow users to answer various environmental questions.

Decades of data are available through the App and API

With a suite of datasets consisting of satellite observations like Landsat, climate reanalyses like ERA5, and decision-ready drought and rangeland vegetation datasets, Climate Engine tools put petabytes of cutting-edge data at your fingertips.

And because Climate Engine tools are backed by Google Earth Engine cloud computing, the possibilities for your analysis are nearly unlimited.

Partner logos from agencies, tribes, and non-profits working with Climate Engine

Trusted by Agency, Tribal, and Non-Profit Partners

Since 2014, the ClimateEngine.org team has developed important partnerships with NOAA's National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the US Geological Survey (USGS), Google, the US Forest Service, NASA, the Navajo Nation, and more.

These partnerships have been instrumental in bringing Earth Observations data into management operations.

Learn more about our partnerships in the Partner Highlights.

Backed by Earth Scientists and Data Scientists

ClimateEngine.org is a collaborative initiative between researchers and data scientists at the Desert Research Institute and the University of California Merced and is supported by Google.

The team combines expertise in hydrology, climatology, ecology, quantitative methods, software engineering, and data science.

Researchers collaborating with Climate Engine data products

Partner Highlights

Example of drought monitoring maps on Drought.gov

NOAA NIDIS

NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) is a primary partner of ClimateEngine.org, supporting the development of drought datasets that are disseminated through Drought.gov.

Learn more about this partnership

Vegetation conditions map example for BLM rangelands

Bureau of Land Management

The US Bureau of Land Management has supported ClimateEngine.org since its inception, using vegetation and drought data products to support rangeland monitoring and management decisions.

Learn more about this partnership

Navajo Nation

Water is an integral part of life for the Navajo Nation. However, as a result of the increased droughts, a detailed local tool was required to assist in water management. In 2020, ClimateEngine.org partnered with the Navajo Nation to release the Drought Severity Evaluation Tool (DSET).

Learn more about this partnership

US Geological Survey

The US Geological Survey (USGS) partnered with ClimateEngine.org to develop methods for evaluating the effectiveness of riparian vegetation restoration using satellite vegetation data and drought and precipitation data. Their methods are now available for users of the Climate Engine App, which we highlighted in this video.

Learn more about this partnership

PROSPER is an empirical model developed to predict if and where streams in the Pacific Northwest will cease to flow in any given year. The PROSPER app relies on the Climate Engine API to perform analysis on the modeled data and to pull in ancillary climate and satellite data.

Learn more about the PROSPER project

US Forest Service

The US Forest Service (USFS) relies on datasets and functionality available in the Climate Engine App to monitor forest resources, meadows, snowpack, drought, climate change, and more. In particular, the App is being used by the Pacific Southwest Region as part of their Meadow Assessment Protocol.

Learn more about the Meadow Assessment Protocol

Google

ClimateEngine.org was launched with support from Google’s Geo for Good initiative in 2014 and Google remains an essential partner. Google Earth Engine provides the computing for the Climate Engine App and API and our resources, in turn, make Earth observations and climate data accessible to researchers and resource managers.

In 2023, the Desert Research Institute was recognized as an inaugural recipient of the Google Geo for Good Impact Award for its work on ClimateEngine.org.

Learn more about the Geo for Good Impact Award

Our Team

ClimateEngine.org is a collaborative initiative between researchers and data scientists at the Desert Research Institute and the University of California Merced. The team combines expertise in hydrology, climatology, ecology, quantitative methods, software engineering, and data science.

What Climate Engine Users Say

Climate Engine is a powerful cloud solution that has enabled NOAA to rapidly create and disseminate critical climate and drought information in ways previously not possible. As an innovative cloud-first tool, the Climate Engine has tremendous potential to complement NOAA’s cloud efforts, such as NOAA’s Big Data Project, moving forward.

— Steve Ansari, NOAA – NCEI

Climate Engine turns the process of downloading and working with remotely-sensed data on its head. Formerly we had to extract zip files from government agency websites and do all of the pre-processing ourselves. Now the process is quicker and easier than ever leading to faster outcomes. I hope to see Climate Engine expanded in the future.

— Tom Dilts, University of Nevada, Reno, GIS and Remote Sensing Scientist

The Climate Engine leverages a powerful computational server network to provide geospatial data and statistical analysis in a lightweight, web-based user interface. This allows users with limited resources access to previously overwhelming datasets and provides tools for analysis of vegetation, climate, hydrology, and trends at local, regional, continental, or global scales.

— Marty Landsfeld, FEWS NET, University of Santa Barbara, Geography Department

Climate Engine has proven to be a useful tool in assisting the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) with monitoring the agricultural land fallowing programs it administers in Southern Nevada... and to coordinate with local stakeholders to assure that both SNWA and parties still irrigating can cooperatively utilize their respective water rights in the most effective manner possible.

— Sean Collier, Hydrologist, Southern Nevada Water Authority

The historical remote sensing data and the tools in Climate Engine helped in a recent water right dispute by producing information showing the historical irrigation of a water right. Climate Engine analyzed massive amounts of remote sensing data in a few minutes that would have taken weeks without Climate Engine.

— William J Kramber, Senior Remote Sensing Analyst, Idaho Dept. of Water Resources

On-Demand Insights from Climate and Earth Observations Data

ClimateEngine.org empowers users of all technical proficiencies to harness the power of cloud computing to analyze decades of Earth Observations data.

Decades of data are available through the App and API

Trusted by Agency, Tribal, and Non-Profit Partners

Backed by Earth Scientists and Data Scientists