Since launching 15 years ago, Google Earth has displayed detailed 3D imagery of our planet from numerous vantage points. Recently, they introduced Timelapse in Google Earth – an interactive 4D experience consisting of 24 million satellite photos captured over the past 37 years. A big motivating factor for creating this latest development was to expose people to the impact of climate change. You can view how any place has changed over the past four decades.
You can explore the past four decades of change an development with Timelapse for Google Earth.
The Google Earth team worked with Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab to develop the technology that powers Timelapse. Their research revealed five areas where our planet was experiencing the most rapid development and change: forest change, urban growth, warming temperatures, sources of energy, and fragile beauty. Clicking on any of these categories takes you through a guided tour of some of the spots in the world where change has been noticeable.
Timelapse was made with what Google refers to as 'pixel crunching' in Earth Engine, the company's cloud-based platform for geospatial analysis. The quadrillions of pixels needed to make Timelapse in Google Earth possible are the result of more than 24 million satellite images gathered from 1984 to 2020. 'It took more than two million processing hours across thousands of machines in Google Cloud to compile 20 petabytes of satellite imagery into a single 4.4 terapixel-sized video mosaic — that’s the equivalent of 530,000 videos in 4K resolution,' explains Rebecca Moore in the official blog post announcing Timelapse.
To help create what is known as 'the largest video on the planet,' Moore credits the U.S. government, NASA and the United States Geological Survey’s Landsat program, plus the European Union, and their Copernicus program with its Sentinel satellites. Over 800 Google Earth Timelapse videos in 2D and 3D are available for public use at g.co/TimelapseVideos. You can also view the videos on YouTube. Google encourages educators to use Timelapse to teach about the impact of climate change.
Miraculous images! I believe this could be the most underappreciated imagery in the world. And I believe Google Maps and all its functions could be the most underappreciated technology. We can virtually travel the entire world instantly, in 4D.
I had supposed it was a variation of maps.google.com with Satellite view covering just about every square meter. In fact at present it seems to be a gallery of dozens of prepared timelapses for selected locations only: 5 locales in Japan, for instance.
Knowledge is power, who controls what is shown and what not ? By Googles search and ranking they moneratise the internet and hold sway on our businesses.... how will they wangle this information . I note for example that the Fagradalsfjall volcano site is all 2019 imagery , yet the adjacent areas are 2021 ! Surely if you were going to reimage an area, the more notable active area would be of most interest ?.... who decides, who sells these captures and withholds some bits ?
What I did see is irresponsible uncontrolled urban development. This could easily be controlled on a local level but in the USA, state & local governments are addicted to growth. Even when the infrastructure is severely taxed they can't say no to new development. They have no plans for controlled growth. As the quality of life diminishes in urban cities, the politicians who control them are quick to warn everyone about global warming yet ignore the cesspool they created.
Website is not working correctly. I get the "WebGL graphics acceleration is not supported on your computer" error message, even though my computer DOES, in fact, support this, and Google's own test page shows my computer passing this test.
Oh well. Cool feature, for those computers where this works properly.
So is this the first update to Google Earth in about a decade? It's become increasingly buggy as its neglect by Google increased. The simulate sun position/shadows feature is marginally functional, and any areas of land below sea level have ocean floating above them. GPX tracks randomly disappear after I load them. My style of photography is highly dependent on simulating/planning in Google Earth, but every day there's a new and exciting broken feature.
Or is this a Google Earth browser feature, and the desktop app is still decaying?
It's Google Earth Web. This layer has been there in desktop Google Earth since few year. But it is painfully laggy in browser. Firefox just freezes. Both don't evolve. A lot of things no longer working in desktop Google Earth. And no new features in Google Earth Web either.
this should be helpful to show the general public the effects of climate change. also will be helpful to know which areas we have to photograph before they disappear.
Climate change yes, but unfortunately letting people know that some arias are disappearing often turns them into a tourist attraction and destroys them :(
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Canon's EOS R7 is a 33MP APS-C enthusiast mirrorless camera built around the RF mount. It brings advanced autofocus and in-body stabilization to the part of the market currently served by the EOS 90D.
The Canon EOS R10 is a 24MP APS-C mirrorless camera built around Canon's RF mount. It's released alongside a collapsible 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM zoom to give a usefully compact, remarkably 'Rebel'-like camera.
Chris and Jordan took a trip to sweltering Florida to test out Canon's new RF-Mount APS-C cameras. Give it a watch to find out our initial impressions.
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