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Radar 2.1 Release

Richard Brown
Richard Brown
CTO & Founder

Summary​

Radar 2.1 adds active fire detections from NASA satellites to the hazard layer, free for everyone, and makes searching for a place by name work properly anywhere in the world. The map layers are clearer about what is switched on, and the data source filters now control the overlays as well as your search results.

Active fires on the map​

The hazard layer now shows active fire detections picked up by NASA satellites, alongside the low bridges and weight limits it already carried. It is free, with no account needed.

  • Tap a detection to see when it was spotted, which satellite saw it, how confident the reading is, and how much heat it gave off.
  • Detections come from satellites passing overhead a few times a day, so a reading is usually a few hours old rather than live.

A detection is a heat reading, not a confirmed fire. From orbit a steelworks, a gas flare, or a large bonfire looks much like a burning hillside, and the satellite data does not tell them apart. Radar works out the difference by watching which spots light up again and again, and leaves out the ones that burn most days.

Learning that takes a few weeks. Until Radar has enough history for an area it shows no fires at all rather than a list it cannot stand behind, and it starts showing them on its own once the data is good enough. An empty fire layer is not an all-clear on its own, so please keep following local warnings and signs. See Map layers & hazards.

Searching for a place by name​

Typing a place name now searches the whole world, not just the UK. Ask for Paris and you get Paris.

Names that belong to more than one place no longer send you somewhere unexpected. There is a Boston in Lincolnshire and one in Massachusetts, and a Newport in Wales, on the Isle of Wight, and in several other countries. Instead of guessing, Radar shows you the matches it found and asks which you meant, then searches exactly there. Postcodes go straight through as before. See Finding places.

Clearer map layers​

  • Each layer button now greys out and crosses through its icon when the layer is off, so you can tell at a glance what the map is drawing rather than having to read the colours.
  • The layers follow your data source choices. Switch a source off in the filters and anything it supplied disappears from the map, so you can keep the hazard layer on and still hide a source you would rather not see.
  • Hazard pins show the full detail behind a restriction: what the limit is, how far away it is, which source it came from, and the road it applies to. Where several restrictions share a spot they are listed together, with any your vehicle would not clear shown first.
  • On a very wide search Radar draws the nearest few hundred restrictions rather than every last one, so the map stays quick to use, and it tells you when it has done that.

Knowing where things come from​

The Data sources page now lists which sources feed each thing on the map, not just each search category, so you can see where a low bridge or a fire came from. Community-surveyed road limits and the NASA fire feed are both listed, and both are free. See Where the information comes from.

A note on offline maps​

Offline map packs are still planned as a Premium feature and will arrive with the native mobile app. They are not available yet on any platform.