Skip to content

Generating a static map image

Dave Thaler edited this page Oct 17, 2025 · 1 revision

Notification emails to subscribers include a link to a map of the hydrophone location. Whenever a new hydrophone is added, a new static map must be generated to avoid bad links being used. The process to do so is as follows:

  1. Go to the USGS map site in a full-screen browser.
  2. Enter the same coordinates as Orcasite has for the hydrophone. You can get the coordinates by grabbing them from the public JSON API.
  3. Set the "basemap" (top icon on the right) to "Imagery with Labels".
  4. For "layers" (second icon on the right), turn on "National Hydrography Dataset".
  5. Use the +/- icons on the left until the bottom right corner says "Zoom Level: 13".
  6. Take a screenshot (e.g., on Windows use the "Snipping Tool") and then open it in an image editor such as Paint.
  7. Resize the image to 33%. For example, in Paint, this can be done via the Resize icon in the "Image" section of the ribbon, or by hitting Ctrl-W.
  8. Crop the image down to a 300 x 200 px section. For example, in Paint, this can be done by dragging the image borders.
  9. Save As a jpg with a filename that matches the slug value configured on Orcasite.
  10. Go to the Azure Storage browser.
  11. Select "Blob containers" then "images"
  12. Upload the jpg saved above

Clone this wiki locally