Google Earth Adds Time-Lapse feature for satellite images
The Google Earth app is adding a new video feature that draws on nearly four decades of satellite imagery to vividly illustrate how climate change has affected glaciers, beaches, forests, and other places around the world. The tool unveiled Thursday is rolling out in what’s billed as the biggest Google Earth update in five years. Google says it undertook the complex project in partnership with various government agencies, including NASA in the US and its European counterpart, in the hope that it will help a mass audience understand the sometimes abstract concept of climate change in terms more tangible through its free Earth app.
Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald believes the mission can be accomplished.
“This is amazing,” he said. The Associated Press after seeing a preview of the new feature. “Trying to get people to understand the extent of climate change and the land-use issue is very difficult because of the spatial and time scale. I wouldn’t be surprised if this software changes many people’s opinions about the scale of the impact of humans on the environment. ”
This is not the first time that time-lapse satellite imagery has been used to demonstrate how parts of the world are changing before our eyes due to a changing climate. Most scientists agree that climate change is being driven by the pollution produced primarily by humans.
But the images above have mostly focused on melting glaciers and have not been widely available in an already popular app like Google Earth, which can be downloaded to most of the 3 billion-plus smartphones in use today. around the world.
Google promises that people will be able to see a time-lapse presentation from almost anywhere they want to search. The feature also includes a storytelling mode that highlights 800 different locations on the planet in 2D and 3D formats. Those videos will also be available at Google‘s Youtube video site, a service more used than the Earth application.
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