Science

New Google service lets users "zoom" through years of time-lapse satellite photos

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Using NASA Landsat imagery, Google Earth Engine now allows users to view fully interactive time-lapses spanning up to 13 years
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, 1999-2011
Weekly composites making up seasonal Earth time-lapse
The technology can be used to show the rapid urbanization of Las Vegas
Using NASA Landsat imagery, Google Earth Engine now allows users to view fully interactive time-lapses spanning up to 13 years
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A combined effort between researchers at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Google provides users with easy access to 13 years of NASA Landsat imagery of the Earth’s surface. The new capability within Google Earth Engine lets users zoom in and out on any spot on the globe, moving back and forth in time between 1999 and 2011.

Although access to the Landsat program’s Earth imagery has been available to the public since 2008, the process of acquiring it has been difficult and cumbersome, due to the sheer volume of data involved.

Google has provided a solution to this problem through the creation of the world's largest library of hard-drive-based Landsat imagery, with more than 1.5 million images; it is a collection that is growing by thousands of images per day. Rebecca Moore, engineering manager of Google Earth Engine, said “The sheer volume of visual data is daunting to explore by conventional means … Together we can offer an intuitive, effortless method to explore the planet in space and time."

The technology can be used to show the rapid urbanization of Las Vegas

The new tool for Earth Engine is based on Carnegie Mellon’s GigaPan Time Machine technology. Originally built for use with GigaPan panoramic photographs, the program utilizes a special feature of HTML5 language, allowing for the development of a software architecture which makes it possible to smoothly shift from one video section to another. It does this without the requirement of plug-ins such as Adobe Flash.

When this is combined with the massively parallel computation power of Google’s Earth Engine, the image archive is transformed into zoomable videos that can be accessed with ease through a modern web browser.

Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, 1999-2011

Randy Sargent, a system scientist in the Robotics Institute's CREATE Lab in Pittsburgh, commented on the significance of the new tool, predicting that it will help ground public discussions regarding land use, climate change and environmental policy. He stated “You can continue to argue about why deforestation has happened ... but you no longer will be able to argue whether it happened.”

Video demonstrations can be viewed on the Google Earth Engine website, and those using the Chrome and Safari web browsers can try out the time-lapse tool now. More information is available in the video below.

Source: Carnegie Mellon University, Google

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4 comments
PassingBy
To Chrome & Safari (in the last paragraph) you might like to add iCab, but only for Mac users, I'm afraid.
A stunning resource, and if this doesn't move people to action to ease off the accelerator pedal and start to try to target a sustainable maintainable economy, I don't think anything will.
All these changes in *just 11 years.
So folks -- please go have a look -- it's real what 'they' are doing to 'your' planet.
Slowburn
Landsat's resolution is so low that twelve years of regrowth just doesn't show.
Because the people are too poor.
A) Care for the environment. B) Not have my children cry themselves to sleep because they're hungry.
This is not a tough choice. Environmental protection is a luxury partaken only by people rich enough to have time for it after taking care of their children.
Steve Montgomery
Slowburn, I've got another option that you neglected to mention--STOP POPPING OUT SO MANY KIDS! The finite planetary resources at our disposal simply WILL NOT support mankind's explosive population growth. Most of us have a completely erroneous view that we are masters of the Earth. We're not. We're stewards. We all have to realize that we can not continue to recklessly plunder our world for short-term gains. Instead of looking at the problem as having only an either-or solution, we've got to realize that we have the ability to do both--care for the environment as well as feed our offspring. Environmental protection is an absolute necessity for every person on this planet if we hope to have any world at all to bequeth to the future generations of mankind.
Ildebrando Velho
Ildebrando Velho - From the outer space to under water Google is on a mission. Don't stop Google!