Sources & privacy
What each instrument draws on, on what terms, and what it sends outside your browser. For the site-wide privacy summary, see Privacy.
The ledger
| Instrument | Measured by | Terms | Leaves your browser |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empires Globe | Cliopatria borders, Seshat Global History Databank | CC BY 4.0 · Natural Earth, public domain | Nothing. Your time zone is read in the browser only, to pick the guide’s sample story; Wikipedia only if you tap a link |
| Night Sky Live | XHIP stars (Anderson & Francis 2012) · ESO Milky Way · CelesTrak orbits · d3-celestial figures | CC BY 4.0 (ESO, Open-Meteo) · BSD 3-Clause (d3-celestial) · MIT and OFL (bundled code and fonts) | Orbits of the ISS, Tiangong and Hubble from CelesTrak (twice a day at most); place searches to Open-Meteo |
| Earth Time Machine | NASA GIBS: MODIS, VIIRS, FIRMS | NASA, no US copyright | Map tiles requested from NASA GIBS |
| Live Weather Globe | Open-Meteo · U.S. Geological Survey · NASA GIBS · wheretheiss.at · CelesTrak (fallback) | CC BY 4.0 (Open-Meteo) · public domain (U.S. Geological Survey, NASA) · BigDataCloud terms · MIT and OFL (bundled code and fonts) | Weather, quake and space-station requests, paused while the tab is hidden; your position, only if you press “Where am I”, to Open-Meteo and BigDataCloud |
| Air Time Machine | NASA Aura OMI via GIBS | NASA, no US copyright | Map tiles requested from NASA GIBS |
| Born From Space | NASA GIBS · Open-Meteo ERA5 · d3-celestial | NASA · CC BY 4.0 · BSD | The date and the city’s map area, to NASA and Open-Meteo. Never stored |
| Daylight Atlas | Astronomy Engine (Don Cross) · Natural Earth coastlines and cities | MIT · public domain | Nothing. Your position, only if you press “Where am I”, is used in your browser and never sent |
| Restless Earth | Müller et al. 2022 and Merdith et al. 2021 plate models (GPlates at build time) · Natural Earth coastlines and cities | CC BY 4.0 · public domain | Nothing. Your position, only if you press “Where am I”, is used in your browser and never sent |
| Wandering Compass | IGRF-14 (IAGA Working Group V-MOD) · Natural Earth coastlines and cities | CC BY 4.0 · public domain | Nothing. Your position, only if you press ‘Where am I’, is used in your browser and never sent |
| The Sun Today | NOAA GOES-19 SUVI · NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center · Natural Earth coastlines | U.S. government works, no U.S. copyright · public domain | Requests to NOAA for the latest images and data, every ten minutes and paused while the tab is hidden |
| Orrery | Astronomy Engine (Don Cross) · NASA’s published Voyager 1 date | MIT | Nothing |
| Vanished Globe | Animal facts compiled from standard sources and Wikipedia · IUCN Red List category names · Wikimedia Commons pictures | Natural Earth, public domain · pictures under public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, credited on each | Nothing. Your time zone is read in the browser only, to pick the guide’s sample story; Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons only if you tap a link |
| Flow Window | Lattice-Boltzmann solver written for the site · NACA 0012 section formula | MIT | Nothing |
| Reynolds Number of Everything | Handbook fluid properties · International Standard Atmosphere · typical figures from textbooks | Facts, with sources in the app | Nothing |
| Weather Dash | Open-Meteo · GeoNames place names | CC BY 4.0 (Open-Meteo, GeoNames) | The city you search for, to Open-Meteo |
| Pomodoro Timer | None | — | Nothing |