Compute
Earthmover Compute is a framework for running computational processes in the cloud, next to your Arraylake data. Compute comprises a growing number of specialized services, each tailored for a different workload.
Choosing the Right Protocol
Compute can serve your data over a number of different protocols. Which one fits best depends on your use case.
Protocol Comparison
| Feature | EDR | Tiles | WMS | DAP2 | openEO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Query Type | Points, polygons, trajectories | XYZ tile indices | Bounding boxes | Array slicing | Process graphs |
| Output Formats | JSON, CSV, NetCDF, GeoTIFF | PNG, JPEG, WebP | PNG, JPEG | Binary, ASCII | Parquet, CSV, GeoJSON, NetCDF |
| Best For | Data extraction & analysis | Visualization & mapping | GIS applications | Scientific tools | Server-side processing & batch extraction |
| CF Convention Required | Yes (X, Y axes) | Yes (CRS, coordinates) | Yes (CRS, coordinates) | No | Yes (X, Y axes) |
| Typical Data Size | Small (subset) | Small (256x256, 512x512 tiles) | Small (map images) | Flexible | Small (aggregated result) |
| Client Complexity | Simple HTTP | Tile layer | WMS client | OPeNDAP client | openEO client |
Here is a live example using tiles to serve 2-meter temperature data.
Learn More
Compute Administration and Logs
In the following
Clusters and credits
Provisioning cluster capacity for Compute services
Authentication
Compute supports both authenticated and public services.
Discovery and Metadata
Compute provides a set of _meta endpoints that let you programmatically explore what data is available through a service, inspect dataset schemas, and access interactive API documentation — all without needing to know the full URL structure in advance.
EDR: Environmental Data Retrieval
EDR is a standard of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
Tiles: Map Tiles API
The Tiles API is a standard of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC).
WMS: Web Map Service
WMS is a standard of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC).
DAP2: OPeNDAP
DAP2 (Data Access Protocol version 2) is the core HTTP protocol used by OPeNDAP (Open-source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol) for data transport and access over HTTP.
openEO: Server-Side Processing
openEO is an open API standard for describing geospatial analyses as process graphs and executing them on the backend where the data lives.
FAQ
What happens if I edit the dataset? Should I restart manually?