Watches, warnings and advisories
Live NWS watches, warnings and advisories.
WeatherLive data
On your shelf
The layer library
Every layer on the living atlas
Add the ones you want to your map.
Filter the catalog
Kind, license, source & coverage
Kind
License
Source
Coverage
68 layers across 39 sources
Start here
Create a layer
Add your own overlay to the living atlas. Draw it straight onto the map - nesting sites, trailheads, historic markers, anything mappable - or upload a GeoJSON or CSV you already have. A Cartian reviewer checks every submission before it is listed, attributed to you.
Live data12
Feeds that update in near real time.
Live natural events
Wildfires, storms, volcanoes and floods happening now.
GeologyLive data
Live flights
Keyless ADS-B aircraft via the flightsInBounds callable; heading-rotated glyph markers, viewport-fetched + polled. OFF by default.
Live data
Live ships
Live AIS vessels via the shipsInBounds callable; heading-rotated glyph markers, viewport-fetched + polled. Needs the AISSTREAM_API_KEY secret; degrades to a calm connect-a-key state when absent. OFF by default.
Live data
Maps & datasets46
Published reference layers and datasets.
Monuments and landmarks
Monuments and heritage sites from Wikidata.
MonumentsMaps & datasets
Species occurrence density
Species occurrence density from GBIF.
BirdsMaps & datasets
Global precipitation rate
Global precipitation rate from NASA.
WeatherMaps & datasets
Near-surface air temperature
Near-surface air temperature, monthly.
WeatherMaps & datasets
Recon
The enable-able recon object-detection overlay (the Wand vision path). OFF by default; LayerHost wires group 'recon' -> ReconLayer at Integrate. Meaningful only zoomed in (objects unresolvable when zoomed out); below z14 it shows a calm 'zoom in to run recon' prompt. Focus filter (Anything/Vehicles/Buildings/Aircraft/Vessels) steers the sweep.
Maps & datasets
Street view (Mapillary)
Crowdsourced street-level photo coverage as a togglable overlay + an immersive viewer. OFF by default; toggle it on and tap a coverage dot (or, zoomed in, tap near coverage) to open the immersive image and walk the sequence. Meaningful photo dots appear from z14; below that the sequence lines + overview dots show where coverage exists. Token is a PUBLIC browser read token, read from env only.
ArchitectureMaps & datasets
2020 Presidential election
The 2020 US presidential result by county.
HistoricalMaps & datasets
Species range
Opt-in species-range overlay. Plants = WCVP native/introduced distribution (CC-BY-4.0, keyless via GBIF) joined to the WGSRPD level-3 polygons (TDWG, open); POWO is a named provenance link-out (its API is Cloudflare-gated). Animals = GBIF occurrence density (aggregate CC-BY floor). The animal density path is aggregate and cannot exclude the CC-BY-NC subset per record, exactly like living-gbif-density; the plant distribution path uses only the clean WCVP rows.
PlantsMaps & datasets
Admin boundaries
Free, already-hosted, public-domain global boundaries: country outlines (Natural Earth Admin 0, 1:110m) plus state / province outlines (Admin 1, 1:50m), fetched as static GeoJSON from the canonical Natural Earth mirror (CORS-open). Cost-lean painted overlay chosen over geoBoundaries CGAZ, whose only hosted global file is a ~401MB Git-LFS blob (not client-lean). Tap a unit for its name. The Wand's country / ADM1 admin CONTEXT is served separately (and additively) by src/lib/wand/sources/boundaries-global.ts.
Maps & datasets
Buildings
Free, already-hosted global building footprints from the VIDA Google + Microsoft Open Buildings PMTiles archive on source.coop (CORS-open, range reads). Flat fill at zoom, subtle 3D massing when pitched (uniform constant height - VIDA carries no per-building height). PMTiles protocol is registered once in MapCanvas. ODbL: the '(c) OpenStreetMap contributors' credit rides the source attribution; commercialUse:false is a share-alike caution (display only - never re-publish an enriched building DB). Tap a footprint for its source.
ArchitectureMaps & datasets
Chain places
Chain / brand store locations from All The Places (CC0). Ships CONFIG-GATED OFF: which brands to surface is an open founder decision, so the curated brand list (src/lib/sources/megalayers/vector/atp-places.ts ATP_BRANDS) is EMPTY by default and the layer is a graceful no-op until brands are curated. When enabled: one bounded static GeoJSON fetch per brand, client-direct, no key, no server, no tiler. Verify the live output host before enabling any brand.
Maps & datasets
Aerial imagery
High-detail aerial photos, US. Appears when you zoom in close.
Maps & datasets
On your shelf
Land cover (US)
USGS NLCD 2021, 30m conterminous-US land cover. Free hosted MRLC GeoServer WMS raster via MapLibre {bbox-epsg-3857} (zero server). Opt-in, off by default. US only. Display-only (point/zonal query DEFERRED). Rendering: RasterTileLayer.tsx; source: src/lib/sources/megalayers/raster-tiles/nlcd.ts.
GeologyMaps & datasets
Forest loss
Hansen Global Forest Change tree-cover loss (annual, 30m, global). Free hosted Global Forest Watch XYZ raster (zero server). Opt-in, off by default. Rendering: RasterTileLayer.tsx; source: src/lib/sources/megalayers/raster-tiles/hansen.ts.
PlantsMaps & datasets
Night lights
NASA Black Marble VIIRS night lights (annual composite). Free hosted NASA GIBS WMTS raster, same host as the app satellite basemaps (zero server). Opt-in, off by default. Display-only. Rendering: RasterTileLayer.tsx; source: src/lib/sources/megalayers/raster-tiles/viirs-nightlights.ts.
Maps & datasets
Place similarity
Derived-similarity layer. Circle a place and ask the map to find similar ones. Answers the similarity verb only (BigQuery VECTOR_SEARCH over a precomputed coarse table); paints nothing until a query runs. Cost-gated OFF by default (EMBEDDINGS_ENABLED) with a maximumBytesBilled ceiling; degrades to 'not available yet' until the offline coarse-cell build runs. Attribution: The AlphaEarth Foundations Satellite Embedding dataset is produced by Google and Google DeepMind.
Maps & datasets
Place similarity - open data
Alternate open-data similarity source (Clay, GeoParquet on source.coop, ODC-BY). Same BigQuery similarity path as the default source but over its OWN coarse table; ships gated-off and is offered only once its table env var is set, so it never searches the default table. Attribution: Embeddings (c) Clay (ODC-BY), via source.coop.
Maps & datasets
Active fires
NASA FIRMS satellite active-fire detections (VIIRS 375m) rendered as a hosted WMS raster overlay, keyless and free. A recent-window selector switches 24h / 48h / 7d. Off by default, opt-in. Tappable / Wand-queryable point variant is the gated-off FIRMS area-CSV path (needs a free FIRMS_MAP_KEY + a bounded callable) - documented in the source adapter, not wired live.
WeatherMaps & datasets
Major rivers
Curated simplified major-rivers subset served as a static app-hosted GeoJSON (public/geo/major-rivers.geojson) - zero server, cost-lean path 2. A coarse cartographic overlay of the world's principal rivers, not a precise hydrological product. Off by default, opt-in. Full HydroRIVERS network + HydroATLAS attributes are DEFER (download-only, no free hosted tiles without a tiler). Swap MAJOR_RIVERS_URL to a fuller simplified export to upgrade.
WaterMaps & datasets
Land surface temperature
MODIS/Terra daytime Land Surface Temperature (skin temperature of the ground).
GeologyMaps & datasets
Aerosol (air-quality proxy)
MODIS combined value-added Aerosol Optical Depth (airborne particulate load, an air-quality proxy).
WeatherMaps & datasets
Vegetation index (NDVI)
MODIS/Terra 8-day NDVI vegetation-greenness composite.
PlantsMaps & datasets
Sea-ice concentration
AMSR2 (GCOM-W1) 12km Sea-Ice Concentration (0-100% of ocean surface).
WaterMaps & datasets
Ocean chlorophyll
MODIS/Aqua L2 Chlorophyll-a (phytoplankton biomass proxy).
WaterMaps & datasets
Ocean depth
GEBCO global colour-shaded ocean bathymetry (+ land).
WaterMaps & datasets
Bedrock geology
Macrostrat cartographic bedrock geologic map, coloured by geologic age.
GeologyMaps & datasets
Soil pH
ISRIC SoilGrids 250m global soil pH (in water, 0-5cm topsoil).
GeologyMaps & datasets
Seafloor and land relief
GMRT (Global Multi-Resolution Topography) colour-shaded relief of land and seafloor.
WaterMaps & datasets
Railways
OpenRailwayMap global railway network (OSM-derived).
ArchitectureMaps & datasets
Roman world
Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire (DARE / Pelagios) rendered historical basemap - Roman roads, settlements, provinces, ancient coastlines.
HistoricalMaps & datasets
Surface water
EC JRC Global Surface Water occurrence (how often each pixel was water, decades of Landsat).
WaterMaps & datasets
Fire danger (FWI)
EFFIS (European Forest Fire Information System) ECMWF-driven Fire Weather Index danger field.
WeatherMaps & datasets
Disaster alerts
GDACS (UN/EC Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System) current disaster events - earthquakes, floods, cyclones, volcanoes, droughts, wildfires - each with a calibrated green/orange/red alert level.
WeatherMaps & datasets
Airports
OurAirports daily CSV of every airport, heliport and airfield worldwide (public domain).
ArchitectureMaps & datasets
Power plants
WRI Global Power Plant Database: ~35k power stations worldwide with location, primary fuel and capacity (MW), drawn as fuel-colored point markers (an energy-mix map).
GeologyMaps & datasets
Air quality
OpenAQ global air-quality measurement stations (PM2.5/NO2/O3, CC-BY 4.0).
WeatherMaps & datasets
Place names
GeoNames global place-name gazetteer (CC-BY 4.0).
HistoricalMaps & datasets
Category10
The discovery facets over field notes and reference data.
Community layers
Community datasets, reviewed and credited.