Using Imagery Services in Map Viewers
- Alistair Quinn (Unlicensed)
- Karin Stronkhorst
In the Spatial Portal Imagery web service page Imagery Web Services list for example click on the three dots (…) on the right of an imagery layer to get the list of software clients in which you can open it, choose Open in Map Viewer.
This particular example shows a tile-cached Restricted basemap:
Alternatively, click on the title of the Imagery Layer to open the Item Details page and choose Open in Map Viewer.
In the Map Viewer click on Modify Map on the top right:
This enables you to edit the properties of the imagery layer by clicking on the three dots (…) beside the layer:
Because this is a tile-cached imagery layer/service you are NOT able to extract individual projects in a Map Viewer, and you have fewer options in the dropdown menu. Unlike in ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro you cannot turn the tile-cache off in a Map Viewer. Tile_cached services are cached down to a scale of 1:1129 and beyond this scale it stops displaying, therefore add a dynamic service with the same projects to the web map to continue displaying the imagery beyond scale 1:1129.
See the difference in options available after adding a dynamic Time Series service via Add -> Search for Layer -> Filter -> Imagery Layers then to add the service to the Map:
From there you can go back to Details and Content and click on the layer and more options three dots (…) of the added Time Series layer:
Filtering out individual projects
The Filter option enables you to add expressions to filter out individual projects:
Copy (via the three dots) the same layer in the Contents pane and apply another filter to compare the two layers by switching them on and off. The Map Viewer does not have a Swipe tool. Nor is it possible to enable time on an Imagery Layer in a Map Viewer where time has not been enabled in the service itself.
Show Table opens the attribute table at the bottom of the map and offers additional options for selecting, viewing and filtering individual projects, such as Center on Selection and Display Selected Images On Map:
Minimum scale at which to view Planet and Sentinel imagery
When dealing with satellite imagery such as the latest PlanetScope imagery with a 3-meter resolution, it's essential to be mindful of scale limits for effective visualisation and analysis. Here's a summary of the reasoning:
Pixel size: 3 meters (SuperDove satellites).
Minimum scale: 1:3,000 (to avoid pixelation). Zooming in beyond this scale would result in no additional detail being visible and a loss in image quality due to pixelation.
To preserve detail and avoid the drawbacks of zooming in too much, using scales larger than 1:3,000—such as 1:5,000 to 1:10,000—is a good rule of thumb. This provides a balance between visualization quality and usability.
This guidance is especially helpful for applications where maintaining image clarity is critical, such as remote sensing analysis, mapping, and geospatial projects.
10-Meter resolution Sentinel imagery should not be zoomed in no more than 1:10,000 and, because again the minimum scale should not be smaller than the pixel size & resolution of the imagery.
Further information: