worldmap.now

The planet, live. Earthquakes, satellite fire detections, weather radar and the International Space Station on one dark globe — no accounts, no setup, no noise. Every event on the map has a link you can send to anyone.

Where the data comes from

Earthquakes

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program — magnitude 2.5+ events from the last 24 hours, refreshed every couple of minutes. USGS data is in the public domain.

Fires (thermal detections)

NASA FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System) — VIIRS satellite thermal detections, clustered into hotspot clusters. A detection means the satellite saw heat: possible fire activity, but also agricultural burns, gas flares, industrial heat or volcanoes. We say "wildfire" only when an official incident source confirms one. Detections typically lag reality by 1–3 hours.

Weather radar

RainViewer — composite precipitation radar, served straight from their tile network.

Earth imagery

Two views. Sun clock (default): NASA's Blue Marble imagery with a night shadow and terminator line computed in your browser from the real position of the sun. Classic (Day/Night chip off): NASA's Black Marble night-lights imagery across the whole planet. Both served via Global Imagery Browse Services, Layered under map data from OpenFreeMap · © OpenMapTiles · © OpenStreetMap contributors.

ISS position

Orbital elements from CelesTrak, propagated in your browser with satellite.js — which is why the station glides instead of teleporting.

Map engine

MapLibre GL JS, open source and excellent.

Acknowledgment

We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).

What this is — and isn't

worldmap.now is for watching, sharing and curiosity. It is not an emergency service and should never be your source for safety decisions. Data can be delayed, incomplete or wrong. In an emergency, follow your local civil authorities.

Tips

Press C for cinema mode — the interface fades and the planet drifts, surfacing big events as they come. Open the site with ?ambient=1 on a TV and it starts that way. G switches between globe and flat.

Location alerts

Alerts haven't launched yet. The form on the homepage is an early-access waitlist for earthquake, fire and severe-weather alerts about places you choose — we'll email you when they go live, and nothing is monitored on your behalf until then. Meanwhile, "Places you follow" on the homepage checks the places you save (stored only in your browser) against current events. See the privacy page for what we store.