Credit: NASA Scientists in 1972 viewing a Landsat enlargement on a special machine in the control center. Now Landsat data is available to everyone with an Internet connection, for free.
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Credit: NASA’s Earth Observatory First Landsat Image - July 25, 1972
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When you think of the grand scheme of things, 40 years to our planet Earth is just about nothing. However, this year Landsat is going on it's 4oth year of bringing us images of Earth. Landsat passes over each part of the Earth every 16 days, and has been since 1972. To celebrate this anniversary, Google put it's computers to work, processed the data, and made it accessible to all of us. The imagery that the resulting timelapse videos provides is remarkable and it some cases incredibly informative. The change of water bodies because of human usage over time is particularly telling. For all the information available, check out the Google Earth Engine. Below, I picked out three of my favorites. The first video gives a great overview of Landsat and the Google project, while the second and third show the changes in the Las Vegas area and the Aral Sea.
