Intute has been counting-down to the festivities with our Advent Calendar – which we hope you’ve enjoyed reading. This final post is about NORAD Tracks Santa and the visualisation tools of Google Earth.
As part of an ongoing tradition stretching back to 1955, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) will once again be tracking Santa as he makes his Christmas Eve journey across the globe to deliver millions of presents.
The excellent NORAD Tracks Santa website provides a potted history of how the Santa tracking service came into existence; it transpires that a misprinted Sears Roebuck & Co. telephone number advertising a Santa hotline directed dozens of children through to NORAD’s predecessor organisation, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD). Rather than simply advise people of the error, CONAD’s Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, asked his staff to provide radar sightings of Father Christmas, and inform the public, and so a tradition was born!
Since that initial batch of calls, NORAD staff have dedicated time each Christmas Eve to respond to thousands of enquiries from children and the general public, and sent out regular updates about Santa’s progress.
As technology advanced, emails tracking Santa’s journey began, and it is now possible to follow Santa’s flight in 3D using Google Earth. The images below show Santa and his reindeer passing over Mount Everest last year!
Google Earth tracking Santa
Passing over Everest
So how do NORAD actually track Santa? According to their site, there are a number of tools which work together to monitor his progress. The commencement of the “present run” is monitored by “the North Warning System”, which spots when Santa’s sleigh becomes airborne from the North Pole. At that point, satellites positioned in geo-synchronous orbit at 22,300 miles from the Earth’s surface are able to monitor the heat signature given off by Rudolph’s nose! Of course, when Santa enters North American airspace, he is tracked closely by fighter jets, whose pilots are thrilled to see him! There is also a global network of “Santa Cam”s, which only operate on Christmas Eve, but which are able to provide high quality imagery and videos following the momentous journey!
YouTube video Santa’s journey 2008.
The NORAD Santa site also provides some very important information about Santa, as well as a host of Frequently Asked Questions concerning NORAD, the Santa service, and related issues!
Merry Christmas from all at Intute, and happy Santa spotting!
