Cruiser is a multi-spectral image data explorer with precise
interactive blending of solar image series across time and wavelength domains.
Scrolling in two dimensions enables discovery and investigation of similarities
and differences in structure and evolution across multiple wavelengths.
Dragging over the image will scroll time and wavelength
Two finger movement on a trackpad will also scroll time and wavelength
↖︎
↗︎
↘︎
↙︎
☜
wavelength
time
Horizonal cursor movement moves time slider.
Vertical cursor movement moves wavelength slider.
Zooming is controlled with the command key pressed and mouse scroll wheel (two finger vertical gesture on macos trackpad), or pinch zoom on IOS.
Panning is controlled with the command key pressed and mouse drag, or two finger motion on IOS.
blend
Scrolling between wavelength labels blends adjacent channels by proximity to the slider thumb. For example, placing the cursor
midpoint between two wavelengths will blend each of the two channels equally.
Blending can be toggled with the blend button.
cloud wavelengths: ↓all
To minimize observation load time, Cruiser does not download every wavelength by default.
Available wavelengths that have not been downloaded are listed in the 'cloud wavelengths' box.
Clicking channels in the 'cloud wavelengths' box will download them. The 'cloud wavelengths' 'all' button will download all available wavelengths for the current observation
2796 IRIS
171 AIA
⇒
171 AIA
2796 IRIS
Channels can be ordered by moving wavelength labels.
2796 IRIS
171 AIA
downloaded wavelengths:
⇒
2796 IRIS
downloaded wavelengths:
171 AIA
Channels can be removed by double clicking, or dragging to the 'downloaded wavelengths' box.
2796 IRIS
downloaded wavelengths:
171 AIA
⇒
2796 IRIS
171 AIA
downloaded wavelengths:
Wavelengths in the 'downloaded wavelengths' box can be double clicked to place them along the wavelength axis, or dragged into the wavelength axis.
Data
Observations can be selected from the Data menu. The Catalog menu menu can be used to selected different observation lists shown in Data.
layers
matrix
↔︎
The layers/matrix button pair control whether the channels are layered and sized to the full image area, or displayed simultaneously as a grid
of smaller images. In matrix mode, clicking an image will move the wavelength scrollbar to the corresponding wavelength, and conversely, clicking
a wavelength label will momentarily highlight the corresponding image..
play
The play button will play a movie in time or wavelength, depending on the time/wave button selection. The speed slider controls play speed.
The numerical value shown next to the speed slider represents playback speed as a multiple of real time.
↔︎
gray
color
The gray/color butttons control whether images are displayed in color (if color table is available) or grayscale. This is a global setting.
rock
loop
↔︎
The rock/loop buttons control play behavior when the movie reaches the last frame. Loop will repeat the movie from the first frame. Rock will play the movie in reverse.
The left and right angle buttons are used to step through time or wavelength.
brightness
—
+
0
contrast
—
+
0
The brightness and contrast controls apply to individual wavelengths, and are adjustable when the wavelength slider is close to a wavelength label.
Clicking a wavelength label, or using the alt + up/down arrow keys (discrete wave jumps) will activate the controls. Brightness and contrast settings
remain in effect for the current cruiser session even when new observations are loaded.
blink
Clicking the blink button will bounce the wavelength cursor between a pair of wavelengths closest to the wavelength cursor.
The light gray upward pointing triangles just below the time slider can be used to limit the endpoints for movie playing.
export mp4
An "export mp4" button is present when viewed with Chrome that downloads image frames and an ffmpeg shell script that when run from a command line will generate an mp4 movie file.
context
The "context" button displays a small window containing a full solar disk and a field of view box representing the coordinates of the main current view.
NOAA ARs
The "NOAA ARs" button overlays recent NOAA active region numbers.
track
The "track" button applies tracking/derotation with the currently displayed time and center coordinates as the reference.
blend
Adjacent wavelength blending mode (default). Scrolling across wavelengths is a smooth blended transition.
blend
No wavelength blending mode. No blending is used when scrolling between wavelengths.
⤓blend
Merged wavelength blending mode. All displayed wavelengths (typically two or three wavelengths) are merged
into a single layer using the opacity and color settings for each channel. The pre-defined three wavelength blends use this merged blending mode
Mutually exclusive button pairs are shown with a small white arrow across their border. A blue background indicates an active selection, while
a dark gray background indicates the inactive option.
The media controls are placed below the time axis, or to the right of the wavelength axis depending on the image dimensions, to maximimize image
size within the browser window.
Clicking the browser's page reload button will restart cruiser with the currently selected observation as a new session, resetting all
selectable options to their default values.
Keyboard Bindings
control key = lock wavelength
alt/option key = lock time
l = loop/rock movie toggle
t = time mode for playing movie
w = wavelength mode for playing movie
space bar = play/pause movie
+ = increase movie speed
- = decrease movie speed
b = wavelength blending toggle
c = color/grayscale toggle
m = layers/matrix toggle
blink: hover over blink button to view direction of next wavelength, alt key to change direction.
d = Browse Data toggle. When open, up/down arrow keys scroll data table instead of wavelength slider. Use enter key to download selected observation.
i = refresh cache
h = help toggle. When open, up/down arrow keys scroll help text instead of wavelength slider
up/down arrow = control wavelength slider, alt-arrow to move between discrete wavelengths.
left/right arrow = step through movie frames
Browser Requirements
Cruiser runs on on a minimum of Firefox 58, Safari 11.0, Chrome 63, and IOS Safari 11.2.5 (iPad only).
Contact
For questions or comments, contact David Schiff schiff@lmsal.com.