Aircraft
ADSB.lol
Community ADS-B receivers. Dense over Europe and North America, sparse over oceans and remote regions.
- Refresh
- Every 10 seconds around the current camera position
- Licence
- Open community feed, ODbL
Data sources behind Live Earth
Nothing on the globe is simulated. Every marker comes from one of the public feeds below, refreshed at the interval listed. Where a feed only covers part of the world, that limit is stated instead of filled in with guesses. Two of these feeds have pages of their own: the satellite tracker for live orbits and pass times, and the launch log for missions, launch dates and status.
Live feeds in use
Earthquakes
USGS Earthquake Hazards Program
Worldwide, magnitude 2.5 and above, past seven days.
- Refresh
- Every 2 minutes
- Licence
- US public domain
Satellites
CelesTrak GP element sets
Publicly catalogued objects: space stations, weather, navigation, Starlink, OneWeb and Iridium groups. Positions are propagated locally with SGP4.
- Refresh
- Element sets cached per session, positions recomputed every frame
- Licence
- Free for non-commercial use, credit CelesTrak
Events in the news
NASA EONET (Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker)
Wildfires, severe storms, volcanoes, floods, dust and icebergs currently open worldwide. Each event links to the agency report behind it.
- Refresh
- Every 10 minutes
- Licence
- NASA public domain, credit requested
Road incidents
DriveBC Open511
British Columbia, Canada only.
- Refresh
- Every 3 minutes
- Licence
- Open Government Licence, British Columbia
Road incidents and cameras
Fintraffic Digitraffic
Finland only.
- Refresh
- Incidents every 3 minutes, camera lists every 10 minutes
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0, Fintraffic
Public cameras
Caltrans CCTV inventory
California state highways only. Still images, no audio, no private cameras.
- Refresh
- Camera list every 10 minutes
- Licence
- US state public data
Cloud cover and precipitation
RainViewer weather maps
Global infrared cloud composite from GOES, Meteosat and Himawari, plus a radar and nowcast mosaic wherever national radar networks publish data.
- Refresh
- New frame roughly every 10 minutes
- Licence
- Free public tiles, credit RainViewer and the source agencies
Terrain elevation
Esri World Hillshade
Whole planet, shaded relief derived from USGS, NASA SRTM and partner elevation models.
- Refresh
- Static elevation model
- Licence
- Esri terms of use, attribution required
Globe imagery
NASA Visible Earth Blue Marble
Whole planet: day surface, night lights, cloud and relief maps.
- Refresh
- Static composite imagery
- Licence
- NASA public domain, credit requested
Aircraft
adsb.fi open data
Second community ADS-B network, used automatically when the first is rate-limited, widening aircraft coverage.
- Refresh
- Every 15 seconds
- Licence
- Open data, credit adsb.fi contributors
Aircraft
adsb.one open data
Third community ADS-B network, used automatically when the others are rate-limited.
- Refresh
- Every 15 seconds
- Licence
- Open data, credit adsb.one
Aircraft
Airplanes.live open data
Highly reliable community ADS-B network with global coverage.
- Refresh
- Every 15 seconds
- Licence
- Open data, credit Airplanes.live
Aircraft
TheAirTraffic open data
Additional community ADS-B network for redundancy.
- Refresh
- Every 15 seconds
- Licence
- Open data, credit TheAirTraffic
Public cameras
NZ Transport Agency traffic cameras
State highway cameras across New Zealand, refreshed stills with highway and direction.
- Refresh
- Every 10 minutes
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0, credit Waka Kotahi NZTA
Satellite tracker page
CelesTrak SATCAT
Catalogue records for tracked objects: launch date, launch site, operator, orbit shape and operational status.
- Refresh
- Hourly
- Licence
- Free for non-commercial use, credit CelesTrak
Launch log page
The Space Devs — Launch Library 2
Past and upcoming orbital launches worldwide, with mission description, target orbit, vehicle, pad and outcome.
- Refresh
- Every 30 minutes
- Licence
- Free public API, credit The Space Devs
Optional high-detail imagery
Esri World Imagery
Whole planet, loaded only when satellite tiles are switched on.
- Refresh
- On demand while zooming
- Licence
- Esri terms of use, attribution required
What is deliberately missing
Ships and AIS traffic
Every global live AIS feed found requires a paid key or forbids redistribution, so the ships layer stays switched off rather than showing invented positions.
Live traffic flow everywhere
Only British Columbia and Finland publish keyless incident feeds. Traffic outside those two regions is genuinely absent, not hidden.