ShadowBroker includes three independent satellite imagery sources ranging from global daily composites to on-demand 10-meter resolution scene lookups.
NASA GIBS MODIS Terra (daily imagery)
The MODIS Terra (Daily) layer overlays NASA’s GIBS (Global Imagery Browse Services) true-color imagery from the MODIS Terra satellite.
| Property | Value |
|---|
| Resolution | ~250 meters per pixel |
| Coverage | Global |
| Latency | 24–48 hours |
| Source | NASA GIBS (gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov) |
| API key required | No |
Controls
- 30-day time slider — scrub backward through the last 30 days of daily imagery
- Play / Pause animation — auto-advance through the time slider to visualize changes over time
- Opacity control — blend the imagery layer with the underlying dark map
This layer is off by default. Enable it from the Layers panel.
MODIS Terra imagery is updated daily but with a 24–48 hour delay. It is useful for visualizing large-scale events (wildfires, dust storms, flood extents) but not for near-real-time situational awareness.
Esri World Imagery (high-res basemap)
The High-Res Satellite layer replaces the dark CARTO basemap with Esri’s World Imagery — a sub-meter resolution satellite basemap suitable for identifying individual buildings, vehicles, and terrain features at zoom level 18 and above.
| Property | Value |
|---|
| Resolution | Sub-meter (zoom 18+) |
| Coverage | Global (coverage varies by region) |
| Source | Esri World Imagery (arcgis.com) |
| API key required | No |
Sentinel-2 intel card
Right-clicking anywhere on the map triggers an on-demand search for the most recent Sentinel-2 L2A scene covering that point, via the Microsoft Planetary Computer STAC API.
| Property | Value |
|---|
| Resolution | 10 meters per pixel |
| Search window | Last 30 days |
| Cloud cover filter | Less than 30% |
| Cache | 1 hour per 0.02° grid cell (~2 km) |
| API key required | No |
What the intel card shows
- Capture date — UTC datetime of the scene acquisition
- Cloud cover % — percentage of the scene obscured by cloud
- Thumbnail — low-resolution preview of the scene
- Full-resolution link — clickable link to the full PNG rendered preview from Azure Blob Storage
- Platform — Sentinel-2A or Sentinel-2B
Results are cached for 1 hour per location to avoid redundant API calls when right-clicking nearby points.
Sentinel-2 imagery updates every ~5 days for most locations. If no clear scene exists within 30 days (e.g., persistent cloud cover), the card will indicate “No clear scenes in last 30 days”.
SATELLITE style preset
The STYLE button in the top-right corner of the map cycles through visual presets. Selecting SATELLITE switches the base map to the Esri World Imagery layer without using the layer panel. The available presets are:
| Preset | Description |
|---|
| DEFAULT | Dark CARTO basemap |
| SATELLITE | Esri World Imagery |
| FLIR | Thermal-style color grading |
| NVG | Night-vision green color grading |
| CRT | Retro CRT scan-line style |