The time-lapse images were built from millions of satellite photographs consisting of trillions of pixels. You can now explore these global, zoomable maps as part of TIME's new Timelapse project.
These stunning images were collected during an ongoing joint mission between the USGS and NASA called Landstat. Since the 1970s, their satellites have been observing earth from space sending back all the images taken for archival. Since 2009, Google started working with USGS to make all these historic earth snapshots available publicly online. Using Google Earth Engine technology, they sifted through 2,068,467 images—a total of 909 terabytes of data, in order to find the highest-quality pixels (e.g. without clouds in the way) for every spot on Earth.
Much like the iconic image of Earth from the Apollo 17 mission—which had a profound effect on many of us—this time-lapse map is not only fascinating to explore, but we also hope it can inform the global community’s thinking about how we live on our planet and the policies that will guide us in the future. - Google
Check out more timelapses of Earth here.
Side Note: I grew up in Vegas and dove in Lake Mead (the lake pictured in the gif) for over a decade. The decrease in water level which you can clearly see from orbit has been staggering. The Las Vegas valley hasn't been able to support the water needs of it's populace in decades and it's taking a major toll on the water table.
