Navigate thebigger picture
POLARIS is a window on the planet as public agencies see it right now: the fires they map, the earthquakes their seismometers catch, the storms their forecasters follow, the aircraft volunteers’ receivers hear, and the satellites whose orbits are published every day.
None of this is secret. It is spread across a dozen agencies, formats and time zones. POLARIS gathers it on one globe, keeps each item’s source and time beside it, and links you back to the agency that reported it.
We would rather show less than show something invented. If a feed is down, the site says which one. If a position is an estimate, as every satellite position here is, the site says so and shows how old the estimate’s inputs are. Severity appears only where the source gives it.
POLARIS is not a surveillance tool. It does not track people or devices, recognise faces, or keep movement histories of individuals. Aircraft appear only by the identifiers they broadcast, and we do not look up who owns them or who is aboard.
Your visit stays yours. There are no accounts, no advertising, no analytics and no cookies. The only thing stored is a short list of your recent place searches, kept in your own browser so you can find them again. Weather and place searches pass through our server, so your browser never contacts those providers directly. The globe’s imagery tiles and event pictures do load straight from NASA’s servers.
Everything on the site, and how fresh it is, is described on the sources page. The globe is the place to start.
POLARIS
World Intelligence System
Questions people ask
Why is an aircraft not exactly where the plane is now?
Aircraft positions come from an OpenSky Network snapshot taken about every 15 minutes. Each aircraft shows where it was at the snapshot time printed beside it, so a fast jet has usually moved on by more than 100 km.
Are the satellite positions live?
They are estimates. Your browser runs each satellite's published orbital elements through the standard SGP4 model every second. The error is usually around a kilometre per day since the elements were published, and more after a manoeuvre. Each satellite's panel shows how old its elements are.
Why are there no aircraft over some oceans and regions?
OpenSky only hears aircraft within range of a volunteer's receiver. Coverage is dense over Europe and North America and thin over oceans, Africa and parts of Asia, so an empty area means no receiver, not no aircraft.
How fresh are the natural events?
Earthquakes come from the USGS feed within minutes. Wildfires, storms, volcanoes and floods come from NASA EONET, which curates reports from other agencies, so they can appear hours or days after they start. Every event shows the time its source observed it.
Is “weather here now” a measurement?
No. It is Open-Meteo's model estimate for that point and hour, not a reading from a weather station.
Can I stop the globe from turning?
Yes. Use the pause button above the zoom controls, or the setting in the top bar. It stops by itself whenever you touch the globe, and it never turns if your device asks for reduced motion.
Does POLARIS track me?
No. There are no accounts, cookies, analytics or ads. Recent place searches stay in your own browser. Imagery loads directly from NASA and EOX servers, and everything else goes through POLARIS's own server.