Map symbols
Every object on the map is drawn with a consistent visual language, so you can read type, status and altitude at a glance.
Air
Aircraft positions come from a network of volunteer ground sensors using ADS-B and MLAT. Each icon's outline matches the aircraft type, and its fill colour follows a continuous gradient keyed to altitude, giving an immediate read of vertical separation across the picture.
Alongside commercial traffic, dedicated outlines are drawn for a wide range of specialist and military airframes, such as the F-35 Lightning II and C-5 Galaxy shown above, extending awareness beyond civil aviation.
Maritime
Surface traffic is tracked via AIS, using a small, consistent set of icon shapes.
Vessels are coloured by type. The key below uses the moving-vessel icon as the reference shape.
Space
Space domain awareness is built in. Open orbital element data and the public satellite catalogue from CelesTrak are propagated with SGP4/SDP4 using satellite.js, so space objects are plotted on the same timeline and map as air and maritime traffic.
Space objects are categorised by primary mission type, with distinct shapes for crewed stations and military assets.
Like the maritime layer, space objects are colour-coded by operational category.
Selecting a satellite shows its owner, launch details and a one-line orbit summary, from its orbit class (low, medium, geostationary, highly elliptical and so on) to its lowest and highest altitude, inclination and period. Each satellite also shows how old its orbital elements are, with anything over a week flagged as stale. More on the details panel.
Across all domains, military-flagged objects are shown only where their location data is already publicly available. No non-public or restricted tracking data is collected, processed or displayed.