Google makes 3D version of Earth Timelapse feature available

Google has made a 3d version of the already existing Timelapse function available. The function uses 24 million satellite images to generate the 3D view. Users can choose locations themselves, or view places selected by Google.

For the 3D Timelapse feature, Google turned those millions of satellite images, which totaled 20 petabytes of images, into one video. For this, Google used ‘thousands’ of computers that together needed more than two hundred million hours to compile the video. That video mosaic is 4.4 terapixel in size, Google writes. For the Timelapse feature, Google is partnering with the Create Lab at Carnegie Mellon University.

As a result, users can go anywhere on Earth and see in 3D how the environment has changed over the decades. Google has also collected several striking locations and timelapses in stories and themes. These themes revolve around, for example, climate change, the human impact on nature, nature in general or growing cities.

These locations can be viewed as a ‘story’, where users go through several pre-selected locations and are informed via text about what they are seeing. In addition, there are Featured Locations, separate locations that could be interesting for a user for a specific reason.

The satellite images come from various organizations. For example, Google uses NASA’s Landsat satellites for Timelapse, or the Sentinel satellites of the EU program Copernicus. Google promises to update Timelapse annually with new images for the next ten years. Timelapse could be used in 2d for years.