Mostly Mapping Map of the Day - July 19, 2017
The World Imagery Firefly basemap is currently in beta, but available for anyone to use. You can view a brief intro about it from the 2017 Esri User Conference plenary here:
Esri UC 2017: ArcGIS Online—Did You Know DYK? - YouTube
Interestingly enough, while it's still in beta and pretty new, it's already been used by Esri U.K. for an app that appeared in the DailyMail online. The full app is shown below.
You can see that Firefly is grayscale when zoomed out, but you still get the texture, context, and drama of imagery without competing with other layers. Zoom in, and you will see the basemap becoming increasingly more colorized until it reaches full color saturation.
For being an early adopter of the Firefly basemap, this app from Esri U.K. earns our Map of the Day.
Learn more by viewing World Imagery Firefly: imagery for thematic maps.