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OVERWATCH.EARTH

Data sources & credits

Data sources & credits

overwatch.earth is built entirely on open, public real-time data. Every one of the 31 live layers comes from an upstream provider that publishes its feed openly — this page credits each, with what it shows, how often it refreshes, and how many objects are on the globe right now. We aggregate respectfully: poll at sensible cadences, honour rate limits and terms of use, and link back rather than rehost. The science agencies, networks and volunteer communities below do the hard work of measuring the planet; overwatch.earth is just a window onto their feeds.

31live layers
30data providers
127,163objects right now
24hreplay history

Transit

LayerSourceUpdatesLive now
Aircraft
Commercial & private flights from crowdsourced ADS-B receivers
adsb.fi live · streaming 52
Military aircraft
Unfiltered military aircraft from open ADS-B
adsb.lol every 12s 48
Ships
Vessels via AIS — cargo, tankers, passenger, fishing
AISstream.io live · streaming 13,037
Trains (Amtrak)
Live Amtrak trains across the US, with route & status
Amtraker every 45s
Public transit
Buses, metro & rail from many city agencies (GTFS-Realtime)
Transitland every 60s 2,191
Airports
Operational airports worldwide — major hubs to regional fields
OurAirports every 24 h 6,048

Environmental

LayerSourceUpdatesLive now
Earthquakes
Real-time global quakes, ring-sized by magnitude
USGS every 60s 12
EMSC seismic
A second seismic network, strong outside the Americas
EMSC every 60s 300
Wildfires
Satellite thermal hotspots / active fire detections
NASA FIRMS every 5 min 752
Lightning
Lightning strikes plotted the moment they happen
Blitzortung live · streaming 113
Aurora
Auroral-oval probability from the NOAA OVATION model
NOAA SWPC every 5 min 2,600
Ocean buoys
Marine buoys reporting waves, wind & sea-surface temp
NOAA NDBC every 10 min 857
Air quality
Ground-station PM2.5 air quality, green→red AQI
OpenAQ every 15 min 11,799
Weather alerts
US severe-weather alert polygons by severity
US NWS every 2 min 33
Disaster alerts
Multi-hazard alerts — quakes, cyclones, floods, volcanoes
GDACS every 10 min 19
Natural events
Curated storms, volcanoes, ice & dust events
NASA EONET every 15 min 120
Volcanoes
Holocene volcanoes worldwide, many with photos
Smithsonian GVP every 24 h 1,215
Fireballs
Atmospheric fireball / bolide airburst detections
NASA CNEOS every 6 h 12

Digital

LayerSourceUpdatesLive now
Submarine cables
The undersea fibre-optic cables that carry the internet
TeleGeography every 24 h 712
Internet outages
Country-level internet disruptions seen at the edge
Cloudflare Radar every 5 min 1
Outages (IODA)
Research-grade outage detection (BGP + probing + telescopes)
IODA / CAIDA every 5 min 2
Data centers
Data centers & internet exchange points — the physical net
PeeringDB every 24 h 5,256
Internet events
Live BGP routing anomalies (leaks, hijacks, outages) & RIR changes
WorldIP.io every 60s 103

Curiosity

LayerSourceUpdatesLive now
Satellites / ISS
Tracked satellites incl. the ISS, propagated with SGP4
CelesTrak 25
Starlink
The full SpaceX Starlink constellation, live
CelesTrak 10,495
Rocket launches
Upcoming & recent orbital rocket launches, at the pad
Launch Library 2 every 60 min 40
Deep Space Network
NASA Deep Space Network dishes and what they’re talking to
NASA DSN every 30s 3
Wikipedia pulse
Live Wikipedia edits — the global pulse of attention
Wikimedia live · streaming 621
Biodiversity
Citizen-science species observations, many with photos
iNaturalist every 2 min 200
Rare birds
Notable & rare bird sightings reported by birders
eBird every 10 min 1,613
Webcams
Thousands of live public webcams — click for the feed
Windy Webcams every 12 h 68,884

How the data flows

Aggregation — we poll public APIs at sensible cadences and link back, never rehost.
Cadence — seconds for flights & lightning, minutes for quakes, hours for webcams.
Offline handling — a feed that goes quiet is dropped from the globe until it recovers.
Retention — positions archived for 24h replay; analytics expire after 90 days.
Licensing — feeds restricting commercial or AI use are deliberately left out.
Privacy — cookieless analytics; raw IP addresses are never stored.

Embed the globe

Add the live globe to your own site — it links back here:

<iframe src="https://overwatch.earth/embed" width="640" height="420" style="border:0;border-radius:12px" loading="lazy" title="overwatch.earth live globe"></iframe>

You can also focus a single layer: append ?layer=flights (or any slug above) to the embed URL.

Frequently asked

Where does the data come from?

Open, public real-time feeds from science agencies, networks and volunteer communities — every one is credited above with a link to the source.

How real-time is it?

Most layers update within seconds to minutes; the exact cadence is listed per source. A feed that stops reporting is removed from the globe until it returns.

Can I reuse the data?

The data belongs to its providers under their own licences — please follow each source's terms. The globe itself is free to view and embed.

Why is a well-known source missing?

We only include feeds whose terms permit public aggregation and that carry coordinates we can place on the map.

Add a source

Run a public, real-time feed with coordinates? Use the “Add Data Source” link on the globe and we'll take a look.

overwatch.earth · about & version · live globe