About temporal data

One aspect of spatial data which is collected more and more is temporal information, allowing map users to visualize live data which is changing in real time, for example tracking the movements of emergency vehicles or delivery trucks, or showing up-to-date weather information.

Spatial phenomena collected with time information may allow map users to see what happened at a specific time, or what may happen in the future; by animating time-based data you can visualize it at each step and see patterns or trends emerging over time. Examples of phenomena whose data is well-suited for this purpose include hurricanes, tornados, and other meteorological events; population migrations; land use and environment change; or wildfire or flood event progression.

Learn more about temporal data

Some services are time-enabled, containing spatial datasets that contain different information for the same location at different times. If a map contains time-enabled layers, the display can be configured to show the data during a specific period of time, or to animate the data over time. When creating presentations, you can define a specific time period for each slide, and you can also allow the time period displayed to be changed while a presentation is running.

Learn more about displaying data from a specific time period

Learn more about setting a time range in a presentation slide

Note:

You can find out if an ArcGIS map or image service is time-enabled by referring to the REST endpoint of the service. Select the layer in the Layers panel, and click the arrow next to the layer to open the Layer Details view, then click the Service Details button. If a service is time-enabled, you will find a section called Time Info on the web page that opens.