ESRI World Imagery Tile Capture Dates

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07-31-2017 12:18 PM
MikeMacRae
Frequent Contributor

We use the ESRI World Imagery base map layer in a web mapping application. Is there any way to determine the date of an image? Specifically when were are in a large scale zoom level (say lower than 1:22,000)? ESRI's website indicates the imagery was updated in 2017, but I'm not sure if they mean every image was updated or bits and pieces here and there?

https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=10df2279f9684e4a9f6a7f08febac2a9 

10 Replies
JayantaPoddar
MVP Esteemed Contributor

Please check the steps in Learning more about the World Imagery basemap | ArcGIS Blog 

For viewing in ArcGIS Desktop, you could just use the Identify tool. FAQ: Is it possible to determine the date of an image from the World Imagery basemap? 



Think Location
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by Anonymous User
Not applicable

Does anyone know how to get image capture dates from this layer in ArcGIS Pro?

I have to switch back to ArcMap and use identify tool to obtain it which is not ideal.

Cheers,

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DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

From the map tab, does the Attributes button/tool allow you to click and bring up the information?  It does for features with associated tabular information

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by Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi Dan,

Unfortunately this tool does not seem to work for the basemap layers in ArcGIS Pro yet. Hopefully it will soon!

Cheers,

DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

Ahhh perhaps not those basemaps, but the ones i tried (standard fodder offering) it worked

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WillyLynch2
Regular Contributor

Add the Citations layer to your ArcGIS Pro map from the URL- https://services.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/World_Imagery/MapServer/4 and this layer can be identified or selected and the various image details viewed such as Date, Resolution, Accuracy, Description (Platform) and Source/Source Information.

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CalebPourchot
Regular Contributor

I'm using the javascript api and for any given identify operation on the World Imagery layer you get a handful of Citation results. When you look at their properties, it would seem you could pick the one that represents the tile at the current zoom level using the "FROM_CACHE_LEVEL" and "TO_CACHE_LEVEL" fields, but in my experience these are not reliable. So you have many situations where you can visually see the change from older tiles to newer tiles and yet the citation dates don't change.

So, unless there is something I'm missing, this feature is pretty useless. Even the sample map at 

https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=c03a526d94704bfb839445e80de95495

is pretty useless. It just displays all the citations in a page view. If you really care about the date at the zoom you are looking at, there is no way to tell which date applies.

Does anyone have a good idea about how to do this reliably? 

by Anonymous User
Not applicable

It would be nice to see the imagery date like this when a user clicks imagery in a web map or in a WebApp app.

To do this, they could simply store it as the pixel value, and use my solution I proposed here https://community.esri.com/ideas/12329 

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AnnaRiling1
Occasional Contributor

This is what I use: https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=c1c2090ed8594e0193194b750d0d5f83 

It shows attributes of all tiles/zoom levels when you click on a location.