The more we get to know about mother Earth, the more we are astounded. But knowing about its changing geography and other features is always unbelievable and alarming, and to get an accurate knowledge, with images, the site EarthEngine by Google serves the purpose best. The site organises geospatial information and makes it available for users’ research and analysis.

The Google Earth Engine has compiled 30 years of incredible satellite imagery into one interactive time-lapse which not only reveals unbelievable global changes taking place but also depict urbanisation and deforestation through the years.

The Earth Engine has been here for more than a decade now, but it has improved a lot with its growing imagery and updated application. The new imagery is more accurate than ever. The programme has been snapping images from space since 1972, giving our eyes a macro perspective of what’s happening all around the globe, available as Google-powered GIFs.

According to the site, each view is built from millions of 1.7-Terapixel images (that’s a trillion pixels and over 909 terabytes of data, guys) at 30-metre resolution. One frame reflects an entire year’s worth of Landsat data from the archives. The project — which was collaboration between the US Geological Survey, Nasa, and TIME — required sifting through more than two million images to find pictures without clouds.

Once the images were compiled, the CREATE lab at Carnegie Mellon University turned the views of the retreat of Alaska’s Columbia Glacier, the urbanisation of Las Vegas, the deforestation of the Amazon, into zoom-able, browse-able and clearer animations built for the web.

Visitors will sure be mesmerised to watch the planet change right before their eyes. And can also compare and contrast these phenomenal pictures of Earth through time for their research studies, comparisons, analyses or for their personal interest.

The good thing is that Earth Engine is free for research, education and non-profit use. But for commercial use, they offer paid commercial licence services.

https://earthengine.google.com

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 6th, 2017