New ADS-B based aircraft tracking overlay, and hundreds of additional weather stations and statistics are now live in CalTopo alongside some cleanup of the layer list. More details about both these overlays can be found below. Access to some overlays will change slightly as part of this improvement as highlighted below. Above: Aircraft layer over […]
We’ve just released a major UI overhaul for the desktop and mobile websites. We had two major goals with this project: first, reduce the variation between the desktop web, mobile web, and app UIs. And second, address some recurring issues around discoverability and ease of use. The UI is now better grouped by […]
Individual Accounts We are revamping our individual subscription tiers beginning January 1st, 2021. Don’t panic – all existing users will be grandfathered in their existing tier unless they want to switch. We want to give the community a heads up and explain the reasoning behind for our decision making. Team accounts will be unaffected by […]
CalTopo is looking to fill two remote developer positions: A UI / UX developer. We are are looking for someone with a mix of design and web development skills, who can assist with design across the entire platform (mobile + web), and also put that design into practice on the web stack. A full stack […]
GPS Accuracy and Tracking Oftentimes, people write in asking about differences in our reported data on how long a particular hike should be versus how the distances they traveled were in their own experience on the trail. So I set out to gather data about why this could be. First of all, let’s take a […]
We are frequently asked about our maps, their accuracy, and the accuracy of tracks, routes, and lines. This is part one of a two part series to help explain some of the nuance in mapping. Inherently this can be a bit of a dense topic so we’ve broken it down with some clear sub topics […]
We’ve just launched two more fire related layers. The first is a false-color visualization based on the Sentinel weekly high-resolution layer. By using Sentinel’s upper infrared bands, we discovered that we were able to provide a clear picture of burned areas and active hot spots, even when the visual imagery is entirely obscured by smoke. […]
We just added live satellite imagery from GOES 16 and 17: https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=40.07807,-113.81836&z=6&b=mbt&o=goes_0&n=1 CalTopo has a dual mission. Normally, we try to be “the right tool for a good day”, helping you plan and execute amazing adventures in the backcountry. Sometimes, particularly for professional users, we become “the right tool on a bad day”, helping provide […]
CalTopo has always made its map layers available to other apps and websites, but we’ve decided it’s time to phase that out. Our slope angle shading layer will no longer be available outside of CalTopo on Oct 1, with all other layers no longer available in other apps and sites in January 2021. We know […]
In response to the recent California fires, we’re launching a new, highly experimental layer: live fire detections from the GOES 17 (West) satellite. GOES 16 and 17 are geostationary satellites positioned over the eastern US (16) and western US (17), streaming images back to Earth on a near-real-time basis. You’ve probably seen their imagery used […]
