Flightradar24 just launched with low bandwidth satellite imagery. If you’re tracking your journey with in-flight Wifi, your 3D map in Flightradar24 will always load fast.
To see the maps in action, select an aircraft on the Flightradar24 map and click the 3D button under the thumbnail image.
Flightradar24 uses our API’s imagery compression to tune their maps for low bandwidth environments. The optimization requires just one change to the API request:
https://api.mapbox.com/v4/mapbox.satellite/8/133/90.jpg
https://api.mapbox.com/v4/mapbox.satellite/8/133/90.jpg70You can specify the level of image compression manually, or you can gauge bandwidth by testing the download speed of a sample tile and adjust compression automatically. Here’s a breakdown of tile sizes by compression level:
| Format | Size | Tile |
|---|---|---|
| JPG 90% | 30.6 KB |  |
| JPG 80% | 20.3 KB |  |
| JPG 70% | 15.9 KB |  |
Read more about image compression options, including compression for PNG tiles, in our API documentation. Drop me a line at irwin@mapbox.com to talk about optimizing your maps for low bandwidth environments.