--- title: NASA Satellite Captures Earth Timelapse Over 20 Years description: A new 20-year NASA timelapse taken from space shows in just a few minutes how life on Earth shapes the planet year by year canonical: https://time.com/5030054/nasa-timelapse-earth-climate-change/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-17T21:37:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T08:32:07.937Z article:section: Science og:title: See How the Earth Has Changed Over the Past 20 Years in This NASA Timelapse og:description: Based on satellite footage og:url: https://time.com/5030054/nasa-timelapse-earth-climate-change/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe59a41055e631a7/6988e65722fb854f64e23bd0/earth-nasa-gif.gif?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 640 og:image:height: 360 og:image:alt: earth nasa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See How the Earth Has Changed Over the Past 20 Years in This NASA Timelapse twitter:description: Based on satellite footage twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe59a41055e631a7/6988e65722fb854f64e23bd0/earth-nasa-gif.gif?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See How the Earth Has Changed Over the Past 20 Years in This NASA Timelapse > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=072c1fb8-e4d9-41d5-9997-243d4b01afd4&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: See How the Earth Has Changed Over the Past 20 Years in This NASA Timelapse [Watch (HLS stream): See How the Earth Has Changed Over the Past 20 Years in This NASA Timelapse](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7zh7Symi.m3u8) (3:14)  _Published 2017-11-17. A new 20-year NASA timelapse taken from space shows in just a few minutes how life on Earth shapes the planet year by year._  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Nov 17, 2017 9:37 PM UTC A new 20-year NASA timelapse taken from space shows in just a few minutes how life on Earth shapes the planet year by year.  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Nov 17, 2017 9:37 PM UTC A new 20-year [NASA timelapse](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/the-changing-colors-of-our-living-planet) taken from space shows in just a few minutes how life on Earth shapes the planet year by year. The timelapse follows two decades of constant image collection from a NASA satellite capturing both seasonal patterns that occur every year and longer term changes. “That’s the Earth,” said Gene Carl Feldman, a NASA oceanographer, in a press release. “That is it breathing every single day, changing with the seasons, responding to the Sun, to the changing winds, ocean currents and temperatures.” The receding level of ice in the Arctic is among the trends captured in the NASA visual. Researchers have long raised alarm at the fast disappearing ice in that region as result of man-made climate change with Arctic sea ice hitting a [winter low](http://time.com/4709913/arctic-sea-ice-winter/) this year and losing ground as the planet continues to warm. NASA has also shown the growth of “biological deserts” — uninhabitable regions — that have expanded their footprint in the last two decades. Green shrubs have also expanded their reach in areas once too cold for life. The data collection serves a practical purpose beyond creating a compelling image. Scientists can use the satellite imagery to help predict where crops will both thrive and suffer and inform farmers how to respond. ## Transcript [ BLANK_AUDIO ] NASA has a fleet of satellites that is designed to look at the planet, different aspects of the planet, the atmosphere, land, oceans, and the ice And so on this particular one what we're seeing is compilation of 20 years of data from three satellites that specialize in looking at vegetation over both land and the ocean. So what you're seeing is the changes in seasons, from winter through winter over 20 years. So as you can see over land, you'll see the changes in green which is intuitive when you have for example, the rainy season you have more green. In the tropics, and in the similar way in the oceans we have these tiny, microscopic plants that are called phytoplankton, which by the way, produce about half of the oxygen you are breathing right now. And similarly, over the seasons, they change. Change. When we can see changes over time we can see how the planet is reacting to, for example, global warming, okay. And we can see in great detail some areas like you're showing right now. We can see this fantastic Dynamics that we see over the ocean and we can slowly how phytoplankton's and how plants over land change between seasons and also throughout this very long period of 20 years. We due to climate change we are having an increase in temperature over a particular region and this region gets Drier, well what you see is an increase in the amount of deserts and for example over the Gulf of Mexico is due to an increase in the amount of rain. For example, we have more river flow than we can see how the the river plume from the Mississippi, which we are looking at right now, gets bigger and goes into the Gulf of Mexico. And these things can have effects over the marina vital lands. In land we have grasses and we have shrubs and we have trees. With the ocean we also have different types of phytoplankton, okay. And the phytoplankton species they can change from on to the other. BAsically, that changes the base of the food web. So, it's basically like changing your salad bar, okay. Not everybody likes broccoli well not all little fish likes All types of phyto plankton. So one of the things that we're surely seeing is because of climate change, this distribution of species, the type of species that we have in the ocean, they can be changing. And we need to be able to look at these things from space. We have a new mission that it is called PACE, that will alow us to do exactly that. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Right now what you're seeing is South America, you see that big big blue area, is basically, these are deserts that we have in the ocean, right? We have deserts over land. We have deserts in the ocean. Places with very very little Are vital plankton. Well those seems to be getting a little bit bigger with time because the oceans are getting warmer. The message that we wanted to convey is that we have only one planet where we live, is a breathing planet, is a planet that is a. It's alive and we're looking at it very carefully and we're have to take care of it because its the only home that we have for the forseeable future and it's a delicate place. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5030054/nasa-timelapse-earth-climate-change/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5030054/nasa-timelapse-earth-climate-change/"},"headline":"See How the Earth Has Changed Over the Past 20 Years in This NASA Timelapse","datePublished":"2017-11-17T21:37:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-12T08:32:07.937Z","description":"Based on satellite footage","url":"https://time.com/5030054/nasa-timelapse-earth-climate-change/","keywords":["Space","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe59a41055e631a7/6988e65722fb854f64e23bd0/earth-nasa-gif.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe59a41055e631a7/6988e65722fb854f64e23bd0/earth-nasa-gif.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"earth nasa","caption":"earth nasa","creditText":"NASA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5030054/nasa-timelapse-earth-climate-change/","name":"See How the Earth Has Changed Over the Past 20 Years in This NASA Timelapse"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See How the Earth Has Changed Over the Past 20 Years in This NASA Timelapse","description":"A new 20-year NASA timelapse taken from space shows in just a few minutes how life on Earth shapes the planet year by year.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/7zh7Symi/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-11-17T21:46:13.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7zh7Symi.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5030054/nasa-timelapse-earth-climate-change/","duration":"PT3M14S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5030054/nasa-timelapse-earth-climate-change/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```