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The Stations page is where you manage the ground stations your organization tracks passes against. Each station has a fixed location and one coverage definition — either a constant minimum elevation or an uploaded elevation mask — that determines when a spacecraft counts as visible from it. Route: /passes/stations
For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt.
Open the page via the Stations tab in the Passes area’s tab bar, alongside the Table, Timeline, and Coverage Map tabs.

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Page Layout

Ground Stations page showing the station list and a selected station overview The page is a two-pane layout. The main area shows the selected station’s overview — its code, name, the subtitle Ground station overview and current pass opportunities, a row of pass summary cards (see Station Status and Pass Summary below), and the station’s applied horizon (see Viewing a Station’s Applied Horizon below). The right pane lists your stations. Search by name or code and filter by Active or Inactive status. Click a row to select it; the selection stays in the URL when you reload or share the page. Use the list toggle in the top bar to give the overview more room. On narrow screens, the station list stacks below the overview instead of forcing horizontal scrolling. Each row in the station list also carries a quick summary: every spacecraft with a recorded pass at that station appears as a pill with a satellite icon, and a field on the right names the spacecraft from the station’s most recent pass — or reads No passes if it has none yet. A station with no associated spacecraft shows a dash instead of pills. Each row also states whether the station is Active or Inactive (see Active and Inactive Stations below). Spacecraft pills wrap beneath the station name so the summary fits within the list pane. Click New Station in the top-right corner to open the ground-station creation modal. Selecting a station and opening its kebab menu (⋮) offers Edit Station, Deactivate station (or Activate station), and Delete Station. When your organization has no stations yet, the page shows No ground stations configured with an Add Ground Station button that opens the same modal.

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Station Status and Pass Summary

Beneath the selected station’s name, a row of summary cards recaps the station at a glance: The Status card is always present. The Next pass and Passes · 7 days cards appear together with the station pass opportunities panel, and show a loading placeholder while their summary is being fetched.

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Active and Inactive Stations

Every station is either Active or Inactive. The station’s Status card states which, and each row in the station list carries the same word — the state is always written out, never indicated by color alone. Active stations take part in pass computation as normal. An inactive station stays listed and selectable; it only stops contributing new pass work, so no new passes are computed for it. Passes it already has remain in place, and you can still select the station, edit it, and review its recorded passes. Deactivation is not deletion, and it asks for no confirmation. To deactivate a station, select it, open its kebab menu (⋮), and choose Deactivate station. The menu item reads Deactivating… while the change is in flight. Once the station is inactive, the same menu offers Activate station, which restores full participation in pass computation — no other changes are needed.

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Inspecting a Station Opportunity

When a selected station has pass opportunities, the Station pass opportunities panel appears beside the antenna constraints. It shows a seven-day heatmap divided into 24-hour columns. An empty hour is labelled No opportunities in this hour. when the current result is known; if no current result exists, it is labelled No current pass result is available. When the result covers several spacecraft, the panel header carries an AGGREGATE badge, with a coverage line beneath it. The line reads N of M spacecraft covered — for example, 2 of 3 spacecraft covered — followed by · missing: and the names of any spacecraft without opportunities, or · complete coverage when every requested spacecraft is covered. An empty panel distinguishes why it is empty. A genuinely empty seven-day window reads No pass opportunities in this seven-day window. When some covered spacecraft returned no opportunities, it reads No pass opportunities returned for the covered spacecraft; this result is incomplete. When the underlying spacecraft data is stale or the result is degraded, it reads Opportunities are unavailable because the spacecraft data is stale; refresh and retry. or Opportunities are limited because the current result is degraded; refresh and retry., with a Refresh button — a stale or degraded result is not the same as an empty window. Click a populated hour to select that time bucket. The page shows a compact list of the passes in that hour. Each pass includes its UTC acquisition time, spacecraft name, and CANDIDATE or BOOKED disposition. Click a pass to open its read-only pass geometry below the station overview. The opportunity panel can also show the current result’s state:

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Pass Geometry Inspector

After you select an opportunity, the Pass geometry section appears below the station overview. It reads Predicted geometry for the selected station opportunity and keeps every panel tied to the same selected prediction epoch. The selected epoch is synchronized across the map marker, both profiles, and the playback control. All displayed epochs and times use UTC.

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Pass Geometry States

The inspector keeps loading, valid empty, restricted, invalid, and unavailable results distinct. It never shows partial track data or raw error details. When a displayed result is stale or degraded, the Provenance dialog shows the corresponding STALE or DEGRADED badge and the message Geometry is informational and non-authoritative until the current result is refreshed. Treat that geometry as review context rather than current authoritative coverage. For a legacy station with unrestricted azimuth and an unknown elevation mask, the coverage card shows a Mask unknown badge instead of a bounded-coverage figure — the inspector does not display a precise footprint for this state.

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Viewing a Station’s Applied Horizon

Selecting a station shows its applied horizon in the overview — the composed curve pass computation actually uses, alongside the raw survey behind it and your configured minimum elevation as a reference line. See Elevation Masks for how these combine. The applied-horizon panel is rolling out gradually — until it reaches your account, the station overview shows the coverage chart without the rows described below. Beneath the chart, two rows describe the horizon in force:
Unspecified does not mean something is wrong with the station. It means the station was configured before VALAR began recording where a horizon comes from, so its provenance was never captured — not that a survey is missing or that the platform is guessing.
A line beneath these rows may also state whether the horizon has been applied yet: for a station whose survey was just uploaded but hasn’t yet been used in a pass computation, it reads This horizon is on file but has not yet been applied to any pass computation. Once it has been used, the same line instead reads Horizon in force since <date>.

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Creating or Editing a Ground Station

New Ground Station modal showing the site-location column with a populated minimap, and the coverage-definition column in constant minimum elevation mode Creating or editing a station opens a single modal — New Ground Station or Edit Ground Station — with no next/back steps to move through. Every field for the station lives on one scrollable surface, arranged in two columns: Site location on the left and Coverage definition on the right. On narrower screens the two columns stack into one, so nothing here requires horizontal scrolling at any supported window size.

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Site Location

Below the coordinate fields is a compact 16:9 minimap that places a marker at the entered latitude and longitude as soon as both are valid. It is a location check only — it confirms the point on the globe you meant, not terrain suitability, antenna readiness, or coverage.

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Coverage Definition

The two coverage forms are alternatives, not two limits you combine — choose the one that describes this station’s horizon and the modal shows only the fields that choice needs.
The right column holds one exclusive choice between two coverage definitions: Switching between the two clears whatever you had entered for the other — a mask you uploaded does not reappear if you switch back to it after selecting constant minimum elevation, and vice versa.

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Constant Minimum Elevation

Enter a single Minimum elevation (degrees) value between 0 and 90. A new station starts at 10.0 degrees by default.

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Elevation Mask (CSV Upload)

Choose a CSV file under Elevation mask CSV. Each row is one azimuth,elevation pair:
Each row applies from its azimuth boundary until the next boundary — a row does not describe a single point, it describes an interval. For example, 0,10 followed by 90,15 means 10 degrees applies from azimuth 0 up to (but not including) 90 degrees, where the 15-degree value takes over. The final interval wraps around from 360 degrees back to 0 degrees, so the last row’s value also covers the gap back to the first row’s azimuth.
If a row fails validation, the upload is rejected with a message naming the offending row or azimuth, and whatever mask you had previously uploaded successfully stays in place — a bad file never clears a good one. Activating the upload without choosing a file first shows Choose a CSV before it can be previewed.

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Applied Horizon Preview

New Ground Station modal in elevation mask mode, showing an uploaded CSV file and the resulting applied-horizon radar preview Below the coverage controls, a radar-style chart shows the applied horizon — the server-evaluated result of your coverage definition, redrawn shortly after you stop typing or a file finishes uploading. This is the same interpretation the platform uses to compute passes; you review the result rather than calculating it yourself.
The minimum elevation value carries over as a floor beneath an elevation mask too: for any azimuth where the mask specifies a lower elevation than the current minimum-elevation value, the higher of the two is what the preview (and the saved station) actually applies. If you intend a mask value to take effect exactly as surveyed, make sure the minimum elevation is set at or below it.

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Validation

Every field is checked as you type; a required field only shows as missing after you attempt to save. If saving fails after every field validates, the modal stays open, every value you entered is preserved, and a banner explains what went wrong so you can retry without re-entering anything. Click Cancel to close without saving, or Create station (Save changes when editing) to save. The button reads Saving… while the request is in flight.

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Editing or Deleting a Station

Select a station in the list, open its kebab menu (⋮), and choose Edit Station to reopen the same modal pre-filled with that station’s values, or Delete Station to remove it. The same menu also offers Deactivate station (or Activate station on an inactive station) — see Active and Inactive Stations. Deleting asks you to confirm first — Are you sure you want to delete <station name>? This action cannot be undone.
  • Passes Overview — the Passes area’s landing page and a map of where each Passes page fits.
  • Elevation Masks — what a station’s elevation mask is and how it combines with its minimum elevation.
  • Sensors — managing the tracking sensor configurations alongside your ground stations.
  • Timeline — what each station’s outcome on the timeline means, including what to do about it.
  • Coverage Map — a read-only geographic view of every station’s coverage footprint at a shared reference altitude.

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Booking and past events

The next upcoming pass is selected automatically when results are available. Use the Spacecraft filter to narrow opportunities, or select a populated heatmap hour and then a pass in that hour. Times use 24-hour UTC throughout the inspector. Click Book event in the selected pass inspector to save it in one step. No additional fields are required. The saved event includes the geometry, coverage, plots and provenance available in that inspector. Later recomputations do not replace this saved information. Open Booked events in the top bar to browse Past or Upcoming bookings. Select a booking to inspect it and replay its saved geometry. The timestamp labelled Saved at booking identifies when the information was preserved. Bookings remain available when the original computation is superseded. Older bookings are also listed. If a booking predates saved inspectors, its retained timing and measurements remain available, with a clear note that its original geometry and plots were not retained. A booking made from the Timeline saves the timing and measurements available there. The current inspector presents data freshness compactly. Select provenance below the map to open the same dialog presentation used by AOI, including revision identifiers, sampling details and the source record. The opportunity selector appears directly below Pass geometry.