Our data comes from respected sources around the world that are dedicated to collecting, researching, and publishing information about human and Earth change over time. Our partners range from government agencies like NASA and the US Census, to non-governmental agencies like the Igarape Institute and the United Nations, and to university research programs at Oxford, Harvard, University of Maryland. In each case, we have forged relationships with data providers that give us the right to freely share their data with you through EarthTime visualizations. Our data sources vary dramatically, and share one common thread: a desire to understand our one home.
Our data comes from many sources and might therefore have its own unique timespan. In some cases, such as certain trade flows and financial numbers, our data precedes 1900. In other cases, such as Landsat satellite imagery, our data starts with Landsat 5's launch in 1984, up until the present. We try our best to ensure that the most recent data will be added to our visualizations as soon as possible.
We pre-process massive data sets using new big-data techniques to create animated visualizations of high-resolution information at different time scales. Relying on many of the same strategies used by video game designers, EarthTime uses GPU's in your computer to create a new capability for interactively exploring extreme-sized data.