Dark tiles near Pole problem.

MartijnPallandt — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 10:42:08 GMT

When using the World Imagery (Firefly) basemap in a global scene with a view of the north pole, the tiles around the north pole are darker than the rest of the map. There is a very clear boundary visible which looks pretty bad. The further I zoom in the further north this boundary is moved. Is there a way to have all tiles the same lightness or at least make the boundary less distinct?

(p.s. Is there a way to add a screen shot, that would probably make it easier)

When using the World Imagery (Firefly) basemap in a global scene with a view of the north pole, the tiles around the north pole are darker than the rest of the map. There is a very clear boundary visible which looks pretty bad. The further I zoom in the further north this boundary is moved. Is there a way to have all tiles the same lightness or at least make the boundary less distinct?

~~(p.s. Is there a way to add a screen shot, that would probably make it easier)~~ (answered)

Re: Dark tiles near Pole problem.

Robert_LeClair — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 17:17:01 GMT

So it appears that this darkening/circular area is by design in the Firefly Imagery basemap. In this ArcGIS Blog article - Firefly Imagery Updates - it mentions "The previous version of Firefly had a vignette, darkening the poles. This newest version still has the vignette, which is an important aesthetic of Firefly cartography, but it is greatly reduced to better accommodate near-polar applications." I have not heard the term "vignette" before so found an article by John Nelson (Esri) where he talks about this cartographic technique. You may reference the blog article here - Steal These Vignettes Please

Hope this helps!

topic Dark tiles near Pole problem. in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Dark tiles near Pole problem.

Re: Dark tiles near Pole problem.