The date range filter and time slider work in tandem to focus on specific time periods. 

Date Range

The Date Range displays the time range available to the map. By using the date picker tool, you can choose as little of time as the most recent 6 hours and as much as 31 days. The default is 48 hours (with the time slider focused only on the most recent 24 hours). Data is available 18 months in the past.

Clicking on the Date range opens the date picker. You can select any one of the pre-configured time range. 

For showing events from specific days, click the “Date Range” at the bottom of the date picker to open a calendar. From this calendar, click on the first and last day of your desired time range. You can also click on the same day twice to only show day from any single day. The map will automatically update once you have clicked on the second day from the calendar.

The video below shows selecting a week long date range; and then how to select a single day. Notice how the map updates for each of those time periods (1 week, 1 day).

Time slider

The Skylight map includes a time slider with two primary functions:

• Precisely control of the visible time period on the map
• Analyze movement over time

The video below shows day by day fishing detections in the Pacific over the course of a month.

Total time period

The “total time period” of the time slider tool matches the date range selected in the top right.  The minimum total time period is 6 hours. The maximum is one month. The total time period will adjust automatically when the selected date range is updated.

Visible time period

The "Visible Time Period" on the map corresponds to the range within the light teal section of the time slider. You can adjust this visible range by moving the handles on either side of the slider to extend or shorten it.

Clicking and dragging the entire slider bar will move the visible time period forward or backward, updating the events and tracks displayed on the map accordingly.

Start/End Time

The gear icon on the far right of the slider allows you to toggle the display of the start and end time of the visible time period on or off

Visible time period 

The time slider provides precise control over the time period of events displayed on the screen, allowing you to focus on specific intervals. This feature can help reduce screen clutter and make it easier to understand the sequence of events.

Thee video below shows an example of how to separate two overlapping satellite frames. By narrowing the time slider to a few hours and then moving it forward or backward, you can view detections from each frame separately to understand when each detection occurred.

Analyzing movement

There are two ways to analyze movement with the time slider. 

Monitor the trends over time: For example, you can look at trends throughout the month, like where fishing happened. See the video at the top of this page for an example.

Analyze vessel tracks: The video below shows two vessels during a Standard Rendezvous event. By narrowing the time slider to a short period and moving it forward, you can see how the vessels come together and then eventually go their separate ways.