The Filter Imagery panel decides which scenes your Visual searches. Good filters are the difference between a clean result and an afternoon of scrolling through clouds.
Date range #
Every instrument opens the calendar over its own archive — the earliest searchable date and the default range depend on the instrument. Sentinel-2 defaults to the last month; instruments with slower revisits or historical archives default differently. The archives start:
- MODIS — February 2000
- ASTER — March 2000 (see the note below)
- Sentinel-1 — October 2014
- Sentinel-3 — October 2016
- Sentinel-2 — March 2017
- Sentinel-5P — February 2019
- Landsat 9 — October 2021
- EMIT — August 2022
Keep the range as narrow as your question allows: wide ranges mean slower searches and longer scene lists. For Sentinel-2 you can also toggle Full year to scan a whole year at once.
A note on ASTER: its SWIR detectors failed in April 2008, so insights that need SWIR bands only work on scenes acquired before that date — the platform warns you when a search can’t return usable SWIR data. ASTER also uses a year-based date picker instead of the day calendar.
Months #
Limit the search to specific months of the year — useful to skip the rainy season or compare the same season across years. The All shortcut selects every month (disabled for very large areas).
The breadth of your date range and months is what decides how fast the search runs. Searching a full archive can keep the platform spinning for many minutes — and may even time out — depending on the insight, the size of your Area and the metadata filters. Keep the months and the range as narrow as your actual need.
Metadata #
Per-instrument quality filters, each with a checkbox and min/max values:
- Cloud cover — the maximum cloudiness allowed per scene (typically defaults to 10%; the exact default depends on the instrument).
- AOI coverage — how much of your Area a scene must cover (typically 90% by default, also per instrument).
- Additional indices such as vegetation, moisture, water or snow, depending on the instrument.
Tighten cloud cover for optical clarity; loosen AOI coverage when your Area spans several satellite tiles.
Optimization #
- Big Areas (Sentinel-2) — merges the tiles acquired on the same date into one seamless image. Turn it on when your Area is larger than a single tile.
- Mosaic — builds a temporal composite from every scene that passes your filters, with an Aggregation Method and a mosaic Type — see Mosaics.
Apply #
- Apply & Search runs the search and opens the Scenes panel with everything that matched.
- When a mosaic is active the button becomes Apply & Visualize — the composite renders directly, no scene picking needed.
- Tick Save filters first to keep this configuration as your default for the next search.
Best practices #
- Start narrow: last 2–3 months, cloud cover ≤ 10%. Widen only if you get too few scenes.
- If your Area looks cut off in the results, lower AOI coverage or enable Big Areas before touching anything else.
- Save the filter sets you use repeatedly — future you will be grateful.