If you're used to exploring the globe with Google Maps and Google Earth, you've likely noticed that many of the images have gotten a bit "old", both in date and resolution. Since the Landsat 8 was launched in February 2013, Google has been mining and processing a petabyte of images – more than 700 trillion pixels – creating the most detailed and cloud-free digital version of Earth to date.
Personally, I've always found the "map" mode of Google Maps more useful, but occasionally switching to "satellite" mode definitely has its appeal. Some places have an impressive beauty that deserves to be viewed properly, without labels and in full screen if possible. Of course, time passes, and with each new update to Maps and Earth it becomes clearer which images are the most recent and which need a new version. Fortunately, the Landsat program launched its eighth satellite in February 2013, and since then it hasn't stopped taking photographs. The amount of data obtained through Landsat 8 is gigantic, and Google had no better idea than to apply that data to a massive update.
According to the official announcement, the Mountain View giant processed almost a petabyte of images, or "700 trillion pixels", a figure that corresponds to 700 billion in the long scale. I imagine many users have already noticed the difference. After all, Maps records more than a billion users per month. The update also replaces images with diagonal lines caused by a hardware failure in Landsat 7, but Google's real magic lies in its "mosaic algorithm", which combines images from Landsat 7 and 8, and eliminates clouds. Needless to say, such a process is extremely complex and required the processing power of 43,000 systems in Google's infrastructure.
One detail we must clarify here is that the new update does not affect the images available at maximum zoom. In fact, its effect can be seen up to 100 kilometers above sea level, while the remaining images are handled by other projects, such as DigitalGlobe's satellites. In other words, your neighborhood will likely "stay the same" on Google Maps.
