Layers & Annotation
The globe is a canvas, and two sidebar tabs let you control what's painted on it. Layers decides what imagery and data overlays you see; Annotate lets you draw your own markings on top. Between them you tailor the map to the question in front of you.
Layers
Open the Layers tab. Overlays are organised into groups:
| Group | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Base imagery | The map underneath — choose one at a time. Options range from a clean street map to a dark tactical style (recommended when you have a lot of overlays) to high-resolution satellite imagery. |
| Satellite overlays | Stackable imagery such as daily true-colour composites, night-lights (a proxy for activity and infrastructure), and active-fire detection. |
| Weather | Cloud cover, temperature, precipitation, and wind. |
| Live data | Auto-refreshing scientific feeds — earthquakes, natural events, and disaster alerts — that update on their own. |
Most overlays carry an opacity slider so you can blend them with the base map, and live layers have a manual refresh control. Reset All clears every overlay and restores the default dark tactical base — a quick way back to a clean slate.
Custom layers
You can bring your own geospatial data onto the globe. Under Custom Layers, click + Add Layer and choose a format:
- GeoJSON — by URL or pasted directly
- WMS / XYZ — standard web map and tile services
- ArcGIS — map-server and feature-server layers
- KMZ/KML — fetched from a URL and converted automatically, with a sync indicator showing when it last updated
Give it a name and colour, save, and toggle it like any built-in layer. Custom layers are remembered between sessions.
Tip: Start from the dark tactical base when you're going to stack overlays — light base maps quickly become unreadable under markers and hulls.
Annotation
Open the Annotate tab to mark up the globe directly. The tools:
| Tool | Use |
|---|---|
| Marker | Drop a single labelled point |
| Polyline | Draw a multi-segment line |
| Polygon | Draw a filled area |
| Circle | Draw a radius circle |
| Measure | Measure distance between two points |
Drawing: pick a tool, click on the globe to place points, then double-click or press Enter to finish (Escape cancels). A panel then lets you name the annotation and pick a colour before saving.
Editing: click any annotation to rename it, change its colour, or delete it.
Scoping annotations to a battlespace
Annotations can be tied to a specific battlespace. A scoped annotation only appears when that battlespace's focus mode is active — so your markup for one situation never clutters another. Leave an annotation unscoped to keep it visible everywhere.
Where to next
- Battlespaces — scoping your map markings to one situation.
- Areas of Interest & Alerting — when you want a drawn area to alert you, not just mark the map.