Constellations
Orbital elements are fetched once and propagated in your browser, so nothing streams while you watch.
Vehicle type
Every type is drawn; switch one off to take it off the map.
Ship type
Everything is drawn; switch one off to take it off the map. A ship's type arrives with its static report, every six minutes, so freshly seen ships start as "not reported".
Minimum face height
Minimum quality
Water temperature
Defaults: 3 ft faces and Fair or better, which is what most people would paddle out for. Quality is a call from swell exposure, peak period and wind against each break's facing; nothing selected under water temperature means every band is shown.
Weather layers
Storms are tropical cyclones with an advisory in force (NHC, JTWC). Rain and snow are every 0.25° cell where the GFS weather model says it is falling this hour. Sunshine is assumed everywhere else.
Rain intensity
Bands are rainfall rate (WMO): light under 2.5 mm/h (0.1 in/h), moderate to 7.6 mm/h (0.3 in/h), heavy to 50 mm/h (2 in/h), violent above. Cells under 0.2 mm/h — a trace — are left out.
Snow intensity
Bands are snowfall rate: flurries under 0.1 in/h (0.25 cm/h), light to 0.5 in/h, moderate to 1 in/h, heavy above that. The rate is the model's liquid precipitation times a snow-to-liquid ratio that follows temperature (10:1 near freezing, more in colder air).
Clouds
Total cloud cover from the same GFS hour, to the nearest 5 %, drawn under the rain and snow wherever at least 30 % of the sky is covered: partly cloudy to 60 %, mostly cloudy to 85 %, overcast from 90 %. Off by default so the map is not blanketed; Land only hides clouds over the sea too.
Wind
The sustained wind at ten metres from the same GFS hour — the wind that keeps blowing, not gusts, which run higher and are not drawn. Over land and sea alike, nothing in the sky. Off by default; 50 mph and up is a storm somewhere, 20 mph is a fifth of the planet. Arrows point the way the wind blows and are coloured by Beaufort band.
Rain over the tropical oceans and snow over polar sea ice are most of the area. The Stats lists follow these filters.
Aircraft colour
Category
Everything is drawn; switch one off to take it off the map.