Google Earth is a geobrowser launched in 2011 by Google. The platform uses a multi-petabyte catalog of satellite imagery ad geospatial datasets with planetary-scale analysis capabilities and makes it available for everybody including scientists, researchers, and developers to detect changes, map trends, and quantify differences on the Earth's surface. For the past fifteen years, billions of people have visited every corner of the world by enabling Google Earth. So far, the platform has focused on creating a 3D replica of the world that reflects our planet with every minute detail.

What is with the time-lapse feature?

It is time for environment lovers to be happy about the new update on Google Earth. The platform has leveled up its app by leveraging a 'Timelapse' option. According to Google, the platform has collected and collated 24 million satellite photos from the past 37 years into an interactive 4D experience. Now, everybody can experience the evolution of planetary changes that happened over the past four decades.

Besides giving visibility to the earth on its evolution, Google also provides a facility to download short videos of the selected location. For the users who are not interested in downloading the videos, they can access the clips later on YouTube. Another interesting update to the new feature is that Google provides a guided tour to locations selected by users. It tells stories about the reason why and how the landscape has changed. For example, it describes how the forest area has paved way for cities to occupy its corridors and how ice has melted in certain regions of the earth. Henceforth, in addition to showing the imagery, the feature illustrates how climate change has affected glaciers, beaches, forests, and other places around the world.

Google has partnered with the CREATE Lab at Carnegie Melon University to unveil the feature and understand the reasons behind the changes in the landscape.