--- title: 'The map' url: 'http://www.mlat.uk/guide/map' markdown: 'http://www.mlat.uk/guide/map.md' date: '2026-10-22' description: ".mlat-guide { --u: clamp(16px, 15.2px + 0.2vw, 16.8px); --g-accent: #0A74C4; --g-accent-dark: #0A5FA0; --g-bg: #ffffff; --g-bg-alt: #F5F7FA; --g-text: #14181D; --g-soft: #5B6772; --g-border: #D6DEE6; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'SF Pro Text'…" --- [User Guide](http://www.mlat.uk/guide) › The map # The map - [Moving around](#moving) - [Home](#home) - [Bottom bar](#bottom-bar) - [Icons and colours](#icons) - [What shows at each zoom](#detail) - [Altitude key](#altitude) - [Connection dot](#connection) - [Scale and credits](#edges) - [Light and dark](#appearance) The map shows live aircraft, vessels and satellites together. Everything else - search, the menu, the object list - sits around it. ## Moving around - **Pan** by dragging the map (one finger on a phone). - **Zoom** with the mouse wheel, a pinch, a double-click / double-tap, or the **+** and **−** buttons at the bottom right (desktop). - **Select** anything by clicking or tapping its icon. Its details open (see [Objects & the object list](http://www.mlat.uk/guide/objects)). - **Deselect** with the close button on the details, or press Esc. The map always fills the whole screen. The top bar, the bottom bar and the side panels float over it, so objects stay visible as they pass behind them. ## Home The **Home** button (the house, left of the bottom bar) brings the map back to your area. If your browser allows location access it centres on you; otherwise it uses the default view. On a phone it centres in the space above the bottom bar, so nothing important sits underneath it. The map also goes Home when you open it, so every visit starts in your area. A link that names a view, an object or an airport opens exactly that instead. ## Bottom bar ![Home, Aircraft, Marine, Space, Special and Alerts](http://www.mlat.uk/user/pages/08.guide/01.map/bottom-bar.png)Home, Aircraft, Marine, Space, Special and Alerts, with a live count above each | Button | What it does | |---|---| | Home | Returns the map to your area (above). | | Aircraft | Shows or hides all aircraft. | | Marine | Shows or hides all vessels and shore stations. | | Space | Shows or hides all satellites. | | Special | Shows military and other special traffic only: military aircraft, and military, law-enforcement and search-and-rescue vessels. | | Alerts | Shows aircraft squawking an emergency code, and vessels reporting an emergency, only. The icon **flashes** when one is in view: red for an emergency squawk, amber for a lower-level alert. | The number above each button is how many of that kind are on screen right now. Switching Aircraft, Marine or Space off only hides them: the counts, the Alerts flash and search all stay accurate. Emergencies always show, whatever filters are on. An active button is drawn in solid black (white in dark mode); a greyed-out one is off. On a phone the bar moves up above the details sheet when the sheet is minimised. ## Icons and colours ### Aircraft Each aircraft is drawn with an outline of its type (airliner, helicopter, light aircraft and so on), coloured by altitude using the key described below. ### Vessels - **Arrow** - a vessel under way, pointing in its direction of travel. - **Circle** - a vessel that is stationary, moored or at anchor. - **Antenna** - a shore station (AIS base station, coastguard, aid to navigation). Vessels are coloured by type (cargo, tanker, passenger, fishing, tug and so on). Zoom right in and larger vessels show their hull outline to scale. ### Satellites Satellites, crewed space stations and military satellites each have their own icon and are coloured by type. They are always drawn above aircraft and vessels. Their positions are calculated in your browser from published orbit data, so they glide smoothly; select one and it updates every second and shows one full orbit of its track. Choose which groups of satellites appear in the menu under **Satellite filters** (see [Menu & map options](http://www.mlat.uk/guide/menu#satellites)). ## What shows at each zoom With thousands of objects in the world, the map shows the most important ones when zoomed out and more as you zoom in: - **Aircraft** - zoomed out you see high-flying and heavy aircraft, military and emergency traffic. Lower and smaller aircraft appear as you zoom in. - **Vessels** - zoomed out you see large commercial vessels. Smaller craft, tugs and moored vessels appear as you zoom in. - **Satellites** - zoomed out you see stations and the brightest satellites; fuller groups (Starlink especially) only appear when zoomed in. Military and emergency objects always show, at any zoom. ## Altitude key The colour bar above the bottom bar is the altitude key for aircraft, from orange near the ground through green and blue to purple at 40,000 ft and above. It hides itself when no aircraft are on screen, and can be turned off in [Settings](http://www.mlat.uk/guide/settings) (Altitude Chart). ## Connection dot A small dot beside the mlat.uk logo shows how the map is receiving live data. It is grey while idle and flashes briefly each time data arrives: **green** for the live streaming connection, **amber** when the map has fallen back to refreshing every 5 seconds. **Red** means there is no connection to the data server. The map reconnects by itself, so you never need to refresh. ## Scale and credits The scale bar sits at the bottom left. The data and map credits sit at the bottom right; they name our data sources (including Airplanes.live and AISHub) and map providers, and link to their sites. ## Light and dark The map follows your device's light or dark appearance automatically. To choose one yourself, turn off **Match System Appearance** in [Settings](http://www.mlat.uk/guide/settings) and switch **Dark Mode** on or off. --- ## Navigation - Parent: [User Guide](http://www.mlat.uk/guide.md) - Next: [Search](http://www.mlat.uk/guide/search.md)