EarthEmbeddingExplorer: A Web Application for Cross-Modal Retrieval of Global Satellite Images

Abstract

While the Earth observation community has witnessed a surge in high-impact foundation models and global Earth embedding datasets, a significant barrier remains in translating these academic assets into freely accessible tools. This tutorial introduces EarthEmbeddingExplorer, an interactive web application designed to bridge this gap, transforming static research artifacts into dynamic, practical workflows for discovery. We will provide a comprehensive hands-on guide to the system, detailing its cloud-native software architecture, demonstrating cross-modal queries (natural language, visual, and geolocation), and showcasing how to derive scientific insights from retrieval results. By democratizing access to precomputed Earth embeddings, this tutorial empowers researchers to seamlessly transition from state-of-the-art models and data archives to real-world application and analysis. The web application is available at https://modelscope.ai/studios/Major-TOM/EarthEmbeddingExplorer.

Figures (8)

• Figure 1: A cloud-native retrieval pipeline based on ModelScope Studio.
• Figure 2: EarthEmbeddingExplorer user interface.
• Figure 3: Geographic distribution of retrieved matches under a top-2.5% threshold for different models and query modalities.
• Figure 4: Top-5 retrieved tiles for the same case study in Figure \ref{['fig:comparison_similarity_distribution']}.
• Figure 5: Geographical distribution of sampled grids