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.
See Announcing Flux: The API Layer for Geospatial Data Delivery for the design behind the stateless, auto-scaling API layer these services are built on.
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 | DAP2 | openEO | Zax SQL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Query Type | Points, polygons, trajectories | XYZ tile indices | Array slicing | Process graphs | Relational queries |
| Output Formats | JSON, CSV, NetCDF, GeoTIFF | PNG, JPEG, WebP | Binary, ASCII | Parquet, CSV, GeoJSON, NetCDF | Result sets, Arrow |
| Best For | Data extraction & analysis | Visualization & mapping | Scientific tools | Server-side processing & batch extraction | Ad-hoc exploration & analytics |
| CF Convention Required | Yes (X, Y axes) | Yes (CRS, coordinates) | No | Yes (X, Y axes) | No |
| Typical Data Size | Small (subset) | Small (256x256, 512x512 tiles) | Flexible | Small (aggregated result) | Flexible |
| Client Complexity | Simple HTTP | Tile layer | OPeNDAP client | openEO client | A tested Postgres or Flight SQL 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
Describe a geospatial analysis as an openEO process graph and run it next to your Arraylake data
Zax SQL
Query your Arraylake data with Zax SQL over the Postgres wire protocol or Flight SQL
FAQ
What happens if I edit the dataset? Should I restart manually?