An epic update for Google Earth. Changes over nearly four decades are illustrated

Google has released a major update to its Google Earth service. As noted by the developers, this is the largest update since 2017.

A feature called Timelapse allows you to view the changes that have occurred on Earth over the past 36 years – from 1984 to 2020. You can access Timelapse at g.co/Timelapse.

Google has also uploaded over 800 videos to a separate directory. Anyone can download these videos in 2D and 3D format for free. The videos show how many different places on the planet have changed – the growth of cities and industrial centers, the decrease in forest areas, the changes in the Arctic and Antarctic under the influence of global warming, and so on. Many of them are already available on YouTube in a separate playlist.

The main sources of data were NASA, the US Geological Survey and the European Space Agency. Timelapse brings together over 24 million satellite images taken from 1984 to 2020.

Project leader Rebecca Moore said:

“As far as we know, Timelapse on Google Earth is the largest video on the planet, on our planet. “