TERRA is an interactive 3D globe for following what is happening on Earth and around it. It combines recent earthquakes, wildfires and satellite fire detections, floods, tropical cyclones, severe storms, volcanoes, official weather warnings, aurora and space-weather conditions, plus selected satellites and space stations.
TERRA is a live Earth map and planetary intelligence web app designed for people who want one place to scan natural hazards, environmental events, space weather and selected objects in orbit.
If you normally search for a live earthquake map, natural disaster tracker, wildfire map, flood tracker, hurricane or cyclone tracker, volcano activity map, aurora forecast, space weather dashboard or satellite tracker, TERRA brings those related views together on the same interactive 3D globe.
The interface is divided into three modes: Earth for events and warnings on the planet, Space for solar and geomagnetic conditions, and Orbit for selected spacecraft. Data refreshes automatically, but “live” should be understood as current or near-real-time according to the cadence and availability of each public source.
Earth mode is the natural-disaster and environmental-event view. You can filter by event type and switch between the last 1 hour, 24 hours and 7 days. Selecting a marker opens the available event details and links back to the relevant data source when a source URL is available.
Recent earthquakes come from the USGS feed. TERRA can show the reported location, magnitude, depth, time, status and other available earthquake metadata. This makes the globe useful as a worldwide earthquake map for checking where seismic activity has been reported recently.
TERRA shows reported wildfire events from NASA EONET and, when the FIRMS feed is enabled, near-real-time VIIRS thermal detections from NASA FIRMS. FIRMS markers are heat detections grouped for display; they are not a mapped fire perimeter and can include non-wildfire heat sources.
Flood events are taken from GDACS. These markers are useful for a global scan of reported flood activity and its GDACS alert level. They should not be interpreted as exact flood boundaries or as a replacement for local emergency information.
GDACS tropical cyclones appear in the Cyclones layer. A hurricane is a regional name for a tropical cyclone, so searches such as “live hurricane tracker”, “cyclone tracker” or “tropical storm tracker” describe the same general hazard family, although TERRA displays the event classification supplied by its source.
NASA EONET supplies severe-storm events used in TERRA. The Storms layer is for reported significant events rather than a minute-by-minute radar product, so it complements — rather than replaces — a local weather radar.
Open volcanic events from NASA EONET appear in the Volcanoes layer. Use them as a fast global view of currently reported volcanic activity and follow the source link for the authoritative event context.
When the USGS flags an earthquake with its tsunami indicator, TERRA can display a Tsunami check marker. This is deliberately not labelled as a tsunami warning: it means the earthquake was flagged for tsunami review. For an official tsunami warning or advisory, always follow the competent tsunami and civil-protection authorities.
TERRA can display official weather-warning information in addition to the event layers. The Earth controls currently expose MeteoAlarm regional bulletins for supported European countries. For TERRA Monitor, supported point-matched alerts can also come from NOAA/NWS in the United States and from MeteoAlarm warnings when a usable CAP polygon is published.
This matters if you search for weather alerts near me, severe weather warnings, storm warnings or official weather alerts: TERRA distinguishes broad informational bulletins from warnings that can actually be matched to a monitored location. Always read the original authority bulletin for the precise affected area, severity and valid time.
Space mode turns the globe into a space-weather dashboard using NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center data and NASA DONKI event feeds. It is built to answer a different group of searches: aurora forecast, northern lights forecast, geomagnetic storm, Kp index, solar wind, solar flare tracker, CME tracker and space weather today.
TERRA visualises the NOAA OVATION aurora forecast around Earth. The view indicates forecast auroral intensity and location; actual visibility from the ground also depends on darkness, cloud cover, local horizon and latitude.
Current solar-wind measurements and the planetary Kp index help describe geomagnetic conditions. TERRA also exposes a short Kp outlook when forecast data is available.
The Space view shows NOAA scales for geomagnetic storms (G), solar-radiation storms (S) and radio blackouts (R), together with available short-range outlook information.
Solar activity can include GOES X-ray flare measurements plus NASA DONKI records for solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and geomagnetic storms. TERRA also shows available proton-flux information for solar-radiation conditions.
Orbit mode tracks a focused selection of objects using current orbital elements from CelesTrak. It includes space stations, selected weather satellites and navigation satellites. Positions are propagated in the browser from orbital data, so the view is a calculated live position rather than a GPS broadcast from the spacecraft.
For people searching for an ISS tracker, space station tracker, weather satellite tracker, GPS satellite tracker or satellite pass predictor, TERRA provides a compact orbital view rather than a catalogue of every satellite in orbit. Select an object to estimate its next overhead passes at your location. The pass calculation reports elevation above the horizon; it does not guarantee that the satellite will be visible to the naked eye.
TERRA Pro adds location monitoring. You can create up to 20 watch areas, choose a centre point and radius, select the event types that matter to you and set a minimum earthquake magnitude. TERRA then compares supported incoming events with those rules and keeps matching alerts in Monitor.
Email notifications and optional browser push alerts can notify you about new matches. The system groups notifications and applies delivery limits so the same activity does not continuously alert the user. Global NOAA space-weather thresholds for G, S and R conditions can also be monitored separately from location-based Earth events.
Typical use cases include earthquake alerts near me, wildfire alerts near a home or property, flood and cyclone monitoring, volcano alerts, weather-warning monitoring and keeping an eye on several places without manually checking the globe all day.
TERRA is designed around the questions people actually type when something is happening: “earthquakes today”, “earthquakes right now”, “latest earthquakes worldwide”, “wildfires today”, “active fires map”, “fire near me”, “floods today”, “tropical cyclone map”, “hurricane tracker live”, “volcano eruptions today” and “severe weather alerts”. Earth mode gives you one place to scan the supported feeds behind those questions.
For solar and geomagnetic conditions, common questions include “aurora forecast tonight”, “northern lights map”, “Kp index now”, “geomagnetic storm today”, “solar flare today”, “CME tracker” and “solar wind speed”. Space mode groups the relevant NOAA and NASA measurements and event reports together instead of making you open several separate dashboards.
For orbit information, you can use TERRA for queries such as “where is the ISS now”, “ISS live tracker”, “weather satellite tracker”, “GPS satellite tracker”, “satellites above me” and “next satellite pass”, within the focused set of orbital objects TERRA currently supports.
With Monitor, the useful search intent changes from viewing to notification: “earthquake alerts near me”, “wildfire alerts near me”, “flood alerts”, “storm alerts”, “disaster alerts for my location”, “push alerts for earthquakes” and “email disaster alerts”. TERRA handles these through saved watch areas and supported event matching rather than pretending to predict disasters.
TERRA does not invent hazard reports. It aggregates and visualises public data from established scientific and official sources, then presents those feeds in one consistent interface.
TERRA is a current and near-real-time disaster and planetary-data map. Different sources update on different schedules, so not every layer is “real time” in the second-by-second sense. The app refreshes automatically and displays the newest data available from each source.
Yes. Earth mode uses USGS earthquake feeds and lets you switch between 1-hour, 24-hour and 7-day windows. Available details include magnitude, depth, time and location.
No. Reported wildfire events and satellite heat detections are different datasets, and neither guarantees a complete list of every wildfire. FIRMS thermal detections can also represent other intense heat sources. TERRA labels these data types separately.
TERRA shows a USGS tsunami-check indicator when supplied with an earthquake, but this is not an official tsunami warning. Use official tsunami-warning services for emergency decisions.
Space mode includes the NOAA OVATION aurora forecast and related solar-wind and geomagnetic information. It helps you understand auroral conditions, but local cloud, darkness and latitude still determine whether the aurora is visible from your exact location.
Orbit mode includes selected space stations when current CelesTrak elements are available, including the ISS selection used by TERRA. You can also estimate upcoming overhead passes for your location.
With TERRA Pro you can create watch areas with a radius and event filters, then receive matched alerts by email and optional browser push notifications. Monitoring coverage depends on the supported source data for each event type.
The live Earth, Space and Orbit views are free to explore. TERRA Pro adds saved watch areas, automated matching, alert history and email/push notification features. Current pricing is listed on the Pricing page.
Open the globe to explore the current Earth, Space and Orbit views, or create a watch area if you want TERRA to monitor selected locations for you.