About Sortie Live
Sortie Live is a real-time interactive conflict tracker. It plays back military events like a weather radar loop — you can watch drone attacks, airstrikes, and missile launches unfold on the map, scrub through the timeline, and read the news from that exact moment.
Methodology
Every event on the map comes from at least one verified source. We combine structured conflict data from ACLED with real-time news monitoring from GDELT and RSS feeds from major wire services. Events are geocoded, timestamped, and assigned a confidence rating.
Data Sources
ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data)
All kinetic events with coordinates and fatalities globally
Updates: Daily at 3:30pm CET
ACLED CAST (Conflict Alert System)
Conflict forecasts and escalation alerts
Updates: Weekly
GDELT (Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone)
News events, geocoded, global. 150k+ sources in 65 languages.
Updates: Every 15 minutes
NASA FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System)
Active fires and thermal anomalies globally via VIIRS and MODIS satellites. Detects large explosions and military strikes as thermal hotspots.
Updates: Near real-time (within 3 hours of satellite overpass)
UCDP (Uppsala Conflict Data Program)
Georeferenced armed conflict events globally since 1989. Battle deaths, one-sided violence, non-state conflicts.
Updates: Annually (GED dataset), with candidate events more frequently
Reuters
Breaking news and wire reports
Updates: Continuous
Al Jazeera
Middle East focused reporting, live blogs
Updates: Continuous
Associated Press
Wire service, verified reporting
Updates: Continuous
BBC News
International news coverage, Middle East sub-feed available
Updates: Continuous
OCHA ReliefWeb
Humanitarian reports, situation updates, flash updates from UN agencies and NGOs. Covers displacement, civilian casualties, aid access.
Updates: Continuous
OCHA Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX)
Curated humanitarian datasets: displacement, food insecurity, conflict incidents, health facility damage. HAPI provides standardized access.
Updates: Varies by dataset
Event Registry (NewsAPI.ai)
150,000+ news sources globally. AI-clustered events. Geocoded. Sentiment analysis built in.
Updates: Real-time
CNN
International news, Middle East sub-feed
Updates: Continuous
NPR
US and international news
Updates: Continuous
The Guardian
International news, Middle East sub-feed
Updates: Continuous
OpenSky Network
Live ADS-B aircraft tracking from global receiver network. Positions, velocity, callsigns. Non-commercial use.
Updates: Real-time (updates every ~10 seconds)
ADS-B Exchange
Unfiltered ADS-B aircraft data including military. Global coverage from community receivers.
Updates: Real-time (updates twice per second)
Flightradar24
Global flight tracking. Commercial and some military aircraft. Most popular flight tracker.
Updates: Real-time
MarineTraffic
Global vessel positions via AIS. Includes naval vessels when broadcasting. Port calls, voyage data, vessel details.
Updates: Real-time (terrestrial AIS)
VesselFinder
AIS vessel positions, voyage data, vessel particulars. JSON and XML output.
Updates: Real-time (terrestrial AIS)
Sentinel Hub (Copernicus)
Free satellite imagery from Copernicus program. Sentinel-2 (optical), Sentinel-1 (radar). Processing API for on-the-fly rendering.
Updates: Every 5 days (Sentinel-2), daily (Sentinel-1 SAR)
Copernicus Emergency Management Service
Satellite-based damage assessment, rapid mapping for disasters and conflicts. Free of charge. Includes EFFIS for fire detection.
Updates: On-demand (activation required)
SIPRI Arms Transfers Database
International arms transfers since 1950. Weapon types, volumes (TIV), suppliers, recipients. Covers all major weapon categories.
Updates: Annually
Global Terrorism Database (GTD)
190,000+ terrorist attacks since 1970. Geocoded, detailed incident data. Maintained by START at University of Maryland.
Updates: Annually (historical database)
IISS Armed Conflict Survey
Expert analysis of all active armed conflicts. Fatalities, refugees, IDP data. Published by Taylor & Francis.
Updates: Annually
Planet Labs
High-resolution daily satellite imagery. 3-5m resolution PlanetScope, 50cm SkySat. Global coverage.
Updates: Daily (PlanetScope)
Liveuamap
Real-time conflict mapping. AI-driven crawlers scan open sources. Covers multiple active conflicts globally.
Updates: Real-time
Bellingcat
Open source investigations. War crimes evidence, weapon identification, geolocation verification. OSINT toolkit.
Updates: Periodic investigations
ISW (Institute for the Study of War)
Daily conflict assessments with maps. Expert military analysis. Campaign assessments for active conflicts.
Updates: Daily assessments
Confidence Ratings
Ethics
- We present data, not opinions. No editorializing.
- Every data point cites its source. Full transparency.
- No graphic imagery. Animated visualizations only.
- Civilian casualty figures use the most conservative credible estimate.
- We are not affiliated with any government, military, or political organization.
Contact
Found inaccurate data? Submit a correction. For other inquiries, email hello@sortie.live.