NASA releases continuous images of planet Earth saved for 20 years

NASA has collected nearly two decades of continuous images of the planet and they are accessible to all. The record of MODIS space equipment is the longest ever made with satellite imagery, from Earth. With it, you can see how the planet was any day and anywhere on the globe since the year 2000. In addition, various filters and tools make it easy to view important data and events of the period.

With such a large amount of information collected, it is even difficult for anyone to know where to start exploring this update of the Worldview tool. To highlight highlights and how the platform can be used, NASA has released this video. In it, we can see the eruption of a volcano, a fire, or the day that Hurricane Katrina occurred, as in the image below.
Worldview also offers several filters that can be applied to the image by means of the "Add Layers" button. Some examples are: Air Quality, Fires, Snow Cover and Types of Vegetation. But perhaps the most entertaining part is the camera-shaped icon that creates an animation of the passage of days in the time interval of your choice. The result of the custom animation can be transformed into a GIF and shared.

The contribution of the tool to researchers is of great value, according to Santiago Gassó of Morgan State University: "In the 80s and 90s ... you would take a physical tape with these images and have to put it into the processing. Only then would you know if the image was usable. This process used to take days to weeks. Now you can look at images for days, weeks and even years in a matter of minutes, immediately find the necessary images and download them for use. It's fantastic!"

Share: