Introducing SedonaSnow

Wherobots released SedonaSnow, a native app that brings Apache Sedona spatial SQL functionality to Snowflake. The app doubles the spatial functions offered by Snowflake and enables customers to do more with their geospatial data.

Apache Sedona is a powerful open-source framework for large-scale geospatial data processing and analysis. Wherobots aims to enable Snowflake customers to use ST_ functions previously available via Sedona Spatial SQL APIs. After installation, you can run a Sedona query like this:

SELECT Sedona.ST_MakeValid(ST_ASWKB(GEOMETRY))

Let’s take a look at some of the functions available in SedonaSnow.

ST_MakeValid. Today, Snowflake allows ingestion of invalid shapes with self-intersections or spikes. ST_MakeValid can be used to fix those shapes, which takes an invalid GEOMETRY and creates a valid representation of it.

ST_SubDivide. Customers who want to split large spatial objects into smaller ones can use the ST_SubDivide function, which takes a geometry and returns a list of shapes divided based on a given maximum number of vertices.

ST_3DDistance. In Snowflake, you can store three-dimensional spatial objects, for example, POINTZ(1 1 1). Using ST_3DDistance, you can calculate the minimum cartesian distance between two three-dimensional objects.

ST_PrecisionReduce. Sometimes customers need to reduce the precision in the coordinates of the spatial object to the given number of decimal places. That is possible now with the help of the ST_ReducePrecision function.

These are just a few examples of new functions now available for Snowflake customers. Check Wherobots documentation to explore the entire set.