Consistent close zoom
Native 2D geographic maps now share a maximum display zoom of 22, matching the strongest existing zoom range found in Natural Hazards, Incident Graph and other MapLibre views. The update covers 49 maintained map construction paths, including the standalone War Room and Commodities Data pages.
Earth-viewer controls can approach a 10-metre camera distance instead of the previous kilometre-scale limits. This is a camera limit, not a claim about image resolution. Scientific diagrams and externally hosted provider maps retain their own scales and controls.
More useful geographic detail
OpenFreeMap’s OpenStreetMap-derived data now supplies minor roads, paths, building footprints, street names, house numbers and selected points of interest where they are mapped. Detailed streets is available in the relevant map-background controls; country data overlays remain visible.
Esri World Imagery is checked against the provider’s tile-availability metadata. The viewer uses the highest available source level up to 23 and correctly crops a lower-resolution parent tile when finer imagery is missing. Source resolution and imagery dates vary by location; magnification does not create extra photographic detail.
Visible source credits and a map-detail guide explain the distinction between background detail and data accuracy. Historical atlases use modern street references only as cartographic context; the historical source layers keep their original dates and qualifications.
Explore without changing the evidence
Use the wheel, pinch or navigation controls to inspect a map, and Layers → Background or Map display to choose a supported basemap. Existing source geometry, approximate locations, filters, saved investigations and Replay semantics remain distinct from the background imagery.
War Room retains its terrain and tile-cache safeguards while using the shared zoom limit. Scientific Earth views can display their geographic background even when model data is unavailable; missing model values remain missing.
Google, MapTiler and Mapbox offer additional options, but no provider is uniformly the most detailed at every place and date. The guide links to those alternatives and their access requirements. This release does not activate a paid mapping service.