Maps Overview

Integrate snow maps in your web mapping application

DeFROST currently offers two different snow maps: one covering the European Alps and the other covering the entire globe. Both maps display the snow depth in centimeters.

The table below quickly summarizes both maps' main characteristics:

	European Alps Map	Global Map
Spatial resolution	20 meters	375 meters
Update time	Daily at 3AM CET	Daily at 4PM CET
Tile zoom levels	13 zoom levels	9 zoom levels
Tile size	256x256 pixels	256x256 pixels
Snow depth color range	Light blue (#35e9e6) to Bright pink (#ff01fb)	Light blue (#35e9e6) to Bright pink (#ff01fb)
Covered area	Alpine Convention	66.5°N to 66.5°S

Both maps are served via their own Tile Map Service (TMS) based XYZ tiles endpoint, making it easy to display it as a layer on top of a basemap of choice, with any of the major web mapping libraries available today such as OpenLayers, Leaflet or Mapbox.

Map Legend

You can use the image below in your application so your users can interpret the snow depth seen on the map. Or feel free to use the JSON definition to programmatically display the range.

3KB

legend.json

JavaScript Definition of Snow Depth Range

Maps Authentication: JSON Web Tokens

In the same way as the DeFROST API, access to the Maps is protected using the JSON Web Tokens (JWT) industry standard. This means that any request to the XYZ tile endpoints must be authenticated by passing a valid JWT token in the HTTP Authorization request header.

Check the Obtain your API tokens section in the Development Quickstart for important details on DeFROST's Authentication functioning, applying to both the API and Maps.

JWT is a highly secure, modern but relatively recent way of securing the access to a Tile Server, making it neccessary to write additional code in order to make it work with some web mapping libraries such as OpenLayers or Leaflet. The Mapbox library already supports JWT authentication method easily out of the box. However - we have already made that work for you:

You can check working code examples on either OpenLayers, Leaflet or Mapbox in the Development Quickstart section or the example project.