Travel back in time with your smartphone and Google Earth Timelapse
Who hasn't ever wanted to travel in a time machine? Now you can do it from your smartphone. Sort of. No one is going to put you on a Delorean to see what life was like before you, but you can see how the planet has changed in the last 35 years thanks to Google Earth Timelapse.
Launched in 2013, this web application has been updated to be available on smartphones and tablets, something that had been impossible until now because mobile browsers disable videos with automatic playback.In addition, Google Earth Timelapse has added two more years of time to its data: it now offers images that show how different our planet is from 1985 to 2018. Changes also include design updates to make browsing easier and more intuitive.
From large scale to small scale, Google Earth Timelapse uses Google Earth Engine to generate these spectacular videos of our planet, which are the result of combining more than 15 million images that come from the U programs.S. Geological Survey/NASA Landsat and European Sentinel. These are then reduced to only 35, with no clouds, which are used to produce the timelapse.
How has your hometown changed during these three decades? How much has the capital of your country grown? How was everything before you were even born? This last one if you were born after 1985, which is not my case... Now everything is within reach of your smartphone or tablet. Sadly, it is also possible to see the deterioration of the planet from above, the melting of the poles, the reduction of green zones, the shrinking of the jungles of the Amazon and a long etcetera.
What's the first thing you will look at in Google Earth Timelapse?
Source: Google blog
