Compare and Timelapse Tools in Planet Explorer Let Anyone Create Stories of Change

As part of my TED talk today, I showed an exciting new tool called Planet Stories. Planet has around 500 images for every given location on Earth’s landmass – a massive dataset documenting immense change. Planet Stories allows anyone to browse, compare, and share this imagery.

There are two key new tools: Compare and Timelapse. Compare lets people select two images and put them into a slider for the purposes of comparison. Timelapse lets people select multiple images and create an animated story of change. People can then share their stories as a link or download them as a video or gif.

Initially, we created these tools for journalists who had asked to use the data to monitor world events and get unbiased information about what was happening around the world. Now we’re opening the tools up for anyone for personal and non-profit uses. To get their feet wet, Planet Explorer users will get access to full resolution PlanetScope and RapidEye imagery globally for a two-week trial period to create and share stories of change for anywhere on Earth.

Here’s how Compare works:

And Timelapse:

Today a wide variety of customers are digesting this data. Mapping companies like Google use our data to improve their maps; governments use it for border security and disaster response; agricultural companies use it to help farmers increase their crop yields. Humanitarian groups use it to track the Rohingya refugee crisis, illegal deforestation, or the ongoing crisis in Syria.

Timelapse and Compare represent a big step forward for this community, as they can more fully understand how dynamic the Earth is and make better decisions for stewardship.

Sign up for a Planet account to access Planet Stories in Planet Explorer, and stay tuned for more on my TED talk in the weeks ahead.