Using the Timeline

The row of pills near the bottom of the screen is the timeline: each pill is one dataset, either a daily composite or an individual satellite pass. Composites sit as a block on the left (oldest), satellite passes as a block on the right (newest).

Why the order isn't strictly chronological

The timeline groups by source type first, then orders each group by time; it doesn't merge composites and passes into one single chronological line. That means a composite from yesterday can sit to the left of a satellite pass from a week ago, because composites are always shown as their own block before the block of passes. Once you know that, the layout reads cleanly: left half is the reliable daily picture, right half is the freshest raw data.

Stepping through passes

Tap any pill to load that dataset on the map. Use the left/right arrow keys on desktop, or the chevron buttons, to step through passes one at a time. Stepping automatically skips over any pass that's locked (outside your plan's region) or has no usable tile at all, so one keypress can jump you straight to the next pass actually worth looking at.

The cloud icon and the "+N" badge

A dashed-circle cloud icon appears on any pill where 95% or more of that pass has no usable reading. See why there are holes for what causes that. Those passes stay dimmed but clickable. Passes newer than your most recent usable one that returned no data at all are collapsed into a single "+N" badge at the end of the timeline instead of cluttering the row with empty pills: it's the one signal that a satellite flew over and came back with nothing usable.

How long data sticks around

Satellite passes are kept on the timeline for 10 days, then their tile data is cleaned up automatically. Composite tiles follow the same 10-day window. If you're looking for data from a couple of weeks ago and it's gone from the timeline, that's why: full retention detail is on our data sources page. On mobile, the timeline shows only your currently selected pass rather than the full row, to save space; see reading the legend for what the color bar above the timeline is doing while you step through it.