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TEE User Guide
A guide to using the Tessera Embeddings Explorer web interface.
Creating a Viewport
A viewport is a 5km × 5km geographic area for which TEE downloads and processes Sentinel-2 embeddings.
- Open the Viewport Manager (the home page)
- Click + Create New Viewport
- Choose a location using one of three methods:
- Search — type a place name (e.g. "Cambridge") or coordinates (e.g. "52.2, 0.12") in the search bar
- Click the map — a 5km preview box follows the cursor; click to lock it in place
- Reposition — after clicking, click again to move the box
- Enter a viewport name and select which years to process (2017–2025)
- Click Create — processing runs in the background with a progress bar
- The viewer opens automatically when processing completes
Deleting a viewport: Click the trash icon next to any viewport in the list. All associated data (mosaics, pyramids, vectors) is cleaned up automatically.
The Viewer
3-Panel Layout (Default)
| Panel | Content |
|---|
| OSM | OpenStreetMap geographic reference |
| Satellite | Esri or Google satellite imagery (toggle in header) |
| Embeddings | Tessera embedding visualization with year selector |
All three panels are synchronized — panning or zooming one pans/zooms all.
6-Panel Layout (Advanced)
Click the 3/6 Panel toggle in the header to switch to the advanced layout:
| Panel | Content |
|---|
| 1. OSM | OpenStreetMap reference |
| 2. Satellite | Satellite imagery with label painting |
| 3. Embeddings Y1 | First year's embeddings with similarity search |
| 4. UMAP / PCA | Dimensionality reduction visualization |
| 5. Heatmap | Temporal distance heatmap (Y1 vs Y2) |
| 6. Embeddings Y2 | Second year's embeddings for comparison |
Switching Years
Use the year dropdown above the embedding panels to switch between processed years. In the 6-panel layout, Y1 and Y2 can be set to different years for temporal comparison.
Similarity Search
Double-click anywhere on the map to trigger a similarity search. TEE extracts the 128-dimensional embedding at that pixel and finds all similar locations across the viewport. All computation runs locally in your browser — no data is sent to the server.
How to Use
- Double-click any pixel on any map panel — similar locations are highlighted across all panels as colored dots
- Adjust the similarity slider to control how similar a match must be (lower = more strict)
- Click Save as Label to name and color-code the current search results
The first time you run a search for a viewport+year, Vector data (~20–50MB) is downloaded and cached in your browser's IndexedDB. Subsequent searches are instant.
Single-Click
A single click on any panel places a synchronized marker across all panels, useful for cross-referencing a location between OSM, satellite, and embedding views without triggering a search.
Labels
Labels are named, colored collections of similar pixels found through similarity search.
Managing Labels
- Save — after a similarity search, click "Save as Label", choose a name and color
- Toggle visibility — click a label name to show/hide it
- Delete — click the X next to a label
- Labels persist across page reloads (stored in browser localStorage)
Cross-Year Timeline
Click Timeline on any saved label to see how its coverage changes across all available years:
- A bar chart shows pixel counts per year
- A percentage change summary compares the first and last years
- Each year's vector data is loaded automatically from cache (or downloaded in background)
Importing and Exporting Labels
Labels are portable — they use embedding distance rather than coordinates, so they work across different viewports.
- Import — use the Import button to load a previously exported JSON file
- Export — see Export Options below
Export Options
The Export dropdown in the header provides three formats:
| Format | Description |
|---|
| Labels (JSON) | Compact metadata for re-importing into TEE |
| Labels (GeoJSON) | FeatureCollection with 10m polygons per pixel, compatible with QGIS and other GIS tools. Properties include label name, color, distance, and threshold. |
| Map (JPG) | High-resolution satellite image with label overlays and legend, rendered at zoom level 18 |
PCA / UMAP Visualization (Panel 4)
In the 6-panel layout, Panel 4 shows a 3D projection of the embedding space:
- PCA — computed instantly in your browser from the downloaded vectors (no server round-trip). Available as soon as vectors are downloaded.
- UMAP — richer structure, computed server-side on first load (~1–2 min)
- Points are colored using satellite RGB values
- Single-click a point to place a marker on all map panels; double-click to trigger a similarity search from that point
- Toggle between PCA and UMAP using the dropdown
- Right-click drag to rotate the 3D view
Heatmap (Panel 5)
The temporal distance heatmap shows pixel-by-pixel embedding differences between Y1 and Y2:
- Bright areas indicate large changes between the two years
- Dark areas indicate stability
- Useful for detecting land use change, deforestation, construction, etc.
Mouse Controls
| Action | Control |
|---|
| Pan | Click and drag |
| Zoom | Scroll wheel, or +/− buttons |
| Place marker | Single-click on any panel |
| Similarity search | Double-click on any panel |
| Adjust similarity | Drag the similarity slider |
| Rotate (PCA/UMAP) | Right-click drag |
Tips
- Processing time is roughly the same whether you select 1 year or 8 years — all years download and process in parallel
- Features appear incrementally — the viewer becomes usable as soon as pyramids are built, even before vector extraction completes
- Privacy — all similarity search and labeling runs locally in your browser. Only tile images are fetched from the server
- Storage — each viewport uses ~5GB depending on the number of years processed