Here I thought it would be about NASA WorldWind, a 2003-era project which was sort of like Keyhole but with all sorts of layers for the GOES and Landsat and MODIS imagery.

Some of those layers were updated every 12 or 24 hours, so you could get near-realtime views of stuff like forest fires and crop growth, which are easily visible using specific spectral bands which are imaged by the satellites.

And clouds, of course, updated every few minutes.

Then the project changed directions and it's more of an SDK meant to be baked into other software; the old interface with all its wonder and depth seems to be gone.

Here's what it was like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rfxy7mn7mw

Same here (Keyhole)

Funny story: Back then I was running keyhole with my son who was about five years old. Naturally you want to fly in over your house, so we did that. He saw the house and said "Dad, go run outside!"

Is your son now a scriptwriter for 'NCIS'?

There are systems deployed by the U.S. military because some general or colonel saw Enemy of the State and said "I want that surveillance tech." Look up Gorgon Stare.

Or... we could save people time and link to exactly what you're talking about. And even explain it!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgon_Stare

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01792-5

Tldr; The 1998 movie "Enemy of the State" had a fancy eye-in-the-sky drone that inspired military drone surveillance tech developed through DARPA funding and deployed in various systems. One such is known as Gorgon Stare, used on Reaper drones.

Today Now! Interviews The 5-Year-Old Screenwriter Of "Fast Five" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIY5b1JMvGs

That was my expectation as well. I used Keyhole in the Air Force back in 2004 or so and it was revolutionary at the time.

I had to go to a special closet and print maps from there as it was only installed on one machine.

The article mentions 2001 for Google Earth, but I am pretty sure it must have been released later. Wikipedia collaborates as much.