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.

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.

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

Channels can be ordered by moving wavelength labels.

Channels can be removed by double clicking, or dragging to the 'downloaded wavelengths' box.

Wavelengths in the 'downloaded wavelengths' box can be double clicked to place them along the wavelength axis, or dragged into the wavelength axis.

Observations can be selected from the Data menu. The Catalog menu menu can be used to selected different observation lists shown in Data.

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..

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.

The gray/color butttons control whether images are displayed in color (if color table is available) or grayscale. This is a global setting.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The "NOAA ARs" button overlays recent NOAA active region numbers.

The "track" button applies tracking/derotation with the currently displayed time and center coordinates as the reference.

Adjacent wavelength blending mode (default). Scrolling across wavelengths is a smooth blended transition.

No wavelength blending mode. No blending is used when scrolling between wavelengths.

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.

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
Cruiser runs on on a minimum of Firefox 58, Safari 11.0, Chrome 63, and IOS Safari 11.2.5 (iPad only). For questions or comments, contact David Schiff schiff@lmsal.com.