Google Maps has received a massive 700 trillion pixel upgrade, allowing users to see the world clearer than ever before and without any clouds obstructing their view. 

The upgrade comes courtesy of NASA's Landsat 8 satellite, which replaces the previous Landsat 7 images that Google began using for its Maps and Earth products in 2013.

Landsat 7 had suffered a hardware failure, corrupting much of its data and introducing ugly horizontal lines in many of its satellite images. Google engineers had managed to edit out many of the lines, though some remained. 

The upgrade to Landsat 8 technology will make such concerns a thing of the past, and Google techies will also be able to stitch together multiple images to create a world satellite map that is unobscured by weather formations. 

Google had already managed to eliminate clouds from most of its satellite imagery, although dark patches remained. 

Among the land masses that have now suddenly become visible is Christmas Island, the small Australian territory in the Indian Ocean. Previously obscured in Google Maps and Google Earth, it can now clearly be seen. 

In a blog post, the Google Maps team put the 700 trillion pixel upgrade in perspective. 700 trillion pixels is 7,000 times more pixels than the estimated number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, or 70 times more pixels than the estimated number of galaxies in the Universe.

"700 trillion pixels is 7,000 times more pixels than the estimated number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, or 70 times more pixels than the estimated number of galaxies in the Universe," the team wrote. 

NASA's Landsat image database is open source, meaning anyone can use it. The database is often used by scientists to study large-scale environmental changes and to predict outbreaks of disease, although most people will most likely have experienced it through Google Maps. 

The image below shows how far satellite technology has come in the past 20 years. The three images are all of the same spot in Arizona's Grand Canyon. The first image was taken by NASA satellites in the early 2000s, the second comes from Landsat 7, while the third is taken using the most recent Landsat 8. 

The Grand Canyon as snapped from space in three generations of Google Earth. Photos: Google

To check out the new technology, open Google Earth or turn on the satellite layer in Google Maps.