How to export an image as Tiff with a transparent background

[anneleengeurts]

Hi,
I wish to export an image in which the NDVI values are only shown within an irregularly-shaped (masked) area. I want to share this with colleagues who want to look at it in Google Earth Pro. However, when I import the image in Google Earth Pro, the background (all area outside the field of interest) appears black. Is there a way to have the background transparent? Here below is my code, thanking in advance for your help.

import ee
import geemap
ee.Initialize()

image = ee.Image('COPERNICUS/S2_SR_HARMONIZED/20200507T104031_20200507T104558_T31UGR')

roi = ee.Geometry.Rectangle([[6.11,50.30],[6.16,50.33]])

field = ee.Geometry.Polygon([[[6.126251, 50.325847],
  [6.123934, 50.324642],
  [6.130114, 50.320368],
  [6.131744, 50.31675],
  [6.133633, 50.312969],
  [6.139641, 50.314284],
  [6.143503, 50.310338],
  [6.147194, 50.311872],
  [6.144361, 50.316367],
  [6.137152, 50.317956],
  [6.126251, 50.325847]]])

image = image.addBands(image.normalizedDifference(['B8','B4']).rename('NDVI'))
NDVI_image = image.select('NDVI').clip(field)

ndvi_colors = ["#8f2723", "#8f2723", "#8f2723", "#8f2723", "#af201b", "#af201b", "#af201b", "#af201b", "#ce4a2e", "#ce4a2e", "#ce4a2e", "#ce4a2e", 
          "#df744a", "#df744a", "#df744a", "#df744a", "#f0a875", "#f0a875", "#f0a875", "#f0a875", "#fad398", "#fad398", "#fad398", "#fad398",
          "#fff8ba",
          "#d8eda0", "#d8eda0", "#d8eda0", "#d8eda0", "#bddd8a", "#bddd8a", "#bddd8a", "#bddd8a", "#93c669", "#93c669", "#93c669", "#93c669", 
          "#5da73e", "#5da73e", "#5da73e", "#5da73e", "#3c9427", "#3c9427", "#3c9427", "#3c9427", "#235117", "#235117", "#235117", "#235117"]

ndvi_vis = {'bands':['NDVI'],'min': 0,'max': 1,'palette': ndvi_colors}

Map = geemap.Map()
Map.centerObject(roi,13)

vis_params = {"min": 0, "max": 2000, "bands": ["B4", "B3", "B2"]}

Map.addLayer(image,vis_params,'image')
Map.addLayer(roi,{"color": 'yellow'})
Map.addLayer(field,{"color": 'purple'})
Map.addLayer(NDVI_image,ndvi_vis,'NDVI')
Map

### Here I tried two ways of exporting as Tiff. When I import them in Google Earth, however, both of them appear with a black background. My question is: How can I get a Tiff that opens with a transparent background in Google Earth?

geemap.ee_export_image(NDVI_image, filename='NDVI_image1.tif', scale=10, file_per_band=False)

NDVI_image2 = NDVI_image.visualize(min=0.5, max=1, palette=ndvi_colors)

geemap.ee_export_image(NDVI_image2, filename='NDVI_image2.tif', scale=10, file_per_band=False)

[giswqs]

If you open the image using QGIS, you should see a transparent background.

Google Earth Pro can't render the GeoTIFF with a tranparent background. You need to convert it to PNG. However, once the GeoTIFF is converted to a PNG, it loses the geoference, and you can't overlay the image easily on the map.
https://community.esri.com/t5/drones-uavs-uas-and-rpas-questions/how-to-import-tif-to-google-earth-without-black/td-p/765919

[anneleengeurts]

Thanks so much, als the link to the older discussion, this is very helpful.
It's a shame there is no direct way of doing it, but now at least I know I can stop trying, and know alternative ways of doing it.
Thanks again!