Google launched a 3D version of the Earth Timelapse feature – Computer – News

Google has provided a 3D version of the current Timelapse function. The feature uses 24 million satellite images to create a 3D rendering. Users can choose the locations themselves, or view the places specified by Google.

For the 3D Timelapse function Made by Google Among those millions of satellite images, which total 20 petabytes of images, is one video. For this purpose, Google used “thousands” of computers that together took more than two hundred million hours to assemble the video. That videomosaic It is 4.4 terapixels in size, Google writes. Before From the Timelapse function Google is partnered with Create Lab at Carnegie Mellon University.

The result is that users can go anywhere on Earth and see how the environment has changed in recent decades in 3D. Google has also grouped several notable sites and time periods in stories and topics. These topics revolve around, for example, climate change, human influence on nature, nature in general or growing cities.

These sites can be viewed as a “story”, as users pass through various pre-defined sites and are informed of the text of what they are viewing. In addition, there are distinct sites, individual sites that may interest the user for a specific reason.

Satellite images come from various organizations. For Timelapse, Google, for example, uses NASA’s Landsat satellites, or the European Union’s Copernicus Sentinel satellites. Google promises to update Timelapse annually with new photos for the next 10 years. Timelapse has been available in 2D for years.