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Google Earth Unveils Stunning, Colossal Time-Lapse View Of The Entire Planet
By Alexa Heah, 16 Apr 2021
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Image via Google
Most would be familiar with Google Earth – who hasn’t spent hours traversing the globe right from the comfort of their own home? With its satellite images, it allows anyone on the internet to experience places they might never be able to set foot on. Now, Google Earth has released its biggest update in years: a time-lapse of the entire planet.
The new feature, called Timeline, allows you to see the Earth change over the years. Through millions of satellite images from 1984 to 2020, you can watch as our planet’s landscape shifts over time.
While beautiful and compelling, it also highlights the dangerous results of waning forests and global warming over the years.
In order to create a time-lapse of the entire planet – literally – the endeavor involves a whole lot of imagery, borrowing from NASA’s Landsat Missions and the European Union’s Copernicus programs.
Google said in a blog post that “it took more than two million processing hours across thousands of machines” to produce the video mosaic. And to ensure it was eco-friendly, all of this took place inside Google’s “carbon-neutral, 100% renewable energy-matched data centers.”
Google also partnered with the CREATE Lab at Carnegie Mellon to identify five key areas of change as seen in the time-lapse. They are: changing forests, urban expansion, a warming planet, sources of energy, and Earth’s fragile beauty.
Although it is exciting to see the planet from such a vantage point, Google hopes users will take home a greater message. By providing a tangible sense of how Earth is changing over time, it drives home the message that we need to do more to protect our only home. As they say, there’s no planet B.
To try out this new feature, head over to Google Earth here. You can also view hundreds of pre-curated time-lapses in this playlist.
We're unveiling a new dimension to Google Earth — time. Launched today with @nasaEarth @EU_Commission @USGS @esa, Timelapse in Google Earth provides a better understanding of Earth’s dynamic changes. Explore our changing planet: https://t.co/xz95CfPlaN pic.twitter.com/qsqWHsZ2at
— Google Earth (@googleearth) April 15, 2021
Timelapse in Google Earth is the visual evidence of dynamic change on our planet from climate change and human behavior. Our hope is that it will be used to educate and inspire.
— Google Earth (@googleearth) April 15, 2021
Check out https://t.co/PFPV1qhWXx to access 800+ ready-to-use videos to create your own stories. pic.twitter.com/p3wHAnWmqY
[via TNW, cover image via Google]
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