This beautiful data visualization tool gives the first comprehensive, high-resolution look at deforestation around the world. It is based on 654,178 Landsat satellite images from the U.S. Geological Survey that were analyzed by a team of academic, government and Google researchers.

The map is published in the journal Science today, along with analysis of global land-use changes down to 30-meter resolution. The team, led by Matthew Hansen, a remote sensing scientist at the University of Maryland, calculated that since 2000, the world lost 888,000 square miles (2.3 million km2) of forest and gained 309,000 square miles (800,000 km2) of new forest for a net loss of 579,000 square miles (1.5 million km2) .

The map was made by team members at Google Earth Engine, based on models developed at UMD that analyzed Landsat data from 2000-2012. The data, which will be updated annually, will be available to the public in January 2014 (you can sign up to be notified when it's ready).

The scientists found that Brazil's efforts to battle forest loss are working. The country had the steepest decline in the annual rate of deforestation since 2000, cutting it in half to under 8,000 square miles per year. Still, tropical rainforest loss is increasing overall by more than 800 square miles a year, led by the biggest losses in Indonesia, Malaysia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Zambia and Angola.

See the dramatic losses in Indonesia in a startling animation in the gallery below, along with some other interesting scenes the researchers chose to highlight. (You can explore more scenes here.)

The trail of destruction from the April 27, 2011 Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado is clearly visible in this location. This was one of 358 recorded tornadoes during the April 25-28, 2011 tornado outbreak, the most severe in U.S. history. (Hansen, Potapov, Moore, Hancher et al.) Deforestation in Paraguay, 2000-2012. (Courtesy of Hansen, Potapov, Moore, Hancher et al., 2013) Forest loss in Sumatra's Riau province, Indonesia, 2000-2012. (Courtesy of Hansen, Potapov, Moore, Hancher et al., 2013) Forest fires near Yakutsk, Russia, 2000-2012. (Courtesy of Hansen, Potapov, Moore, Hancher et al., 2013)