New Dynamic World environmental map comes to Google Earth

Dynamic World is a free satellite tool that shows how much land is covered by nine distinct types of land: water, trees, grass, crops, bushes, barren ground, and snow/ice. You can see current land cover in real time or see how the land has changed over weeks, months, or years in a certain location.

Every day, Dynamic World generates hundreds of photos of the world, allowing it to identify land cover down to a 10-meter resolution, which means that each display pixel spans 10 meters of area. This type of land cover data “may take months or years to create,” according to reports, but Dynamic World, which dates back to June 2015, takes only a few days.

Politicians and researchers can use this data to measure progress toward fulfilling the Paris Agreement, according to the site, or to assess the environmental effect of natural disasters. Dynamic World displays a number of timelapse instances, including the remnants of a wildfire and a volcano eruptions, and some more benign alterations like seasonal changes in an ecosystem.

Right now, you can take a look at Dynamic World. To get a closer look at where you reside, enter your ZIP code or city. Reduce the visibility to figure out what you’re looking at, then adjust the dates and select Before/After to see how the landscape has changed in that time.