Data Sources & Methodology

EarthRadar24 is an independent intelligence platform that normalizes and contextualizes authoritative global hazard and geophysical data. We do not operate proprietary sensor networks; all intelligence is ingested from verified government, academic, and international scientific monitoring agencies.

Seismic Intelligence

All earthquake records are ingested from the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program via their public FDSN Event Web Service (earthquake.usgs.gov).

  • Ingestion & Polling: EarthRadar24 ingests real-time GeoJSON feeds on a continuous ~60-second cycle, normalizing parameters into a unified geospatial schema.
  • Latency & Solution Refinement: Seismological hypocenters, depths, and magnitudes inherently update post-event as seismic waves propagate to distant stations and seismologists review automated solutions. Origin timestamps reflect seismic rupture time at the focus, not ingestion arrival time.
  • Tsunami Evaluation Flags: Qualifying coastal or undersea earthquakes carry native USGS flags indicating whether an oceanic evaluation was triggered by upstream tsunami warning centers.

Volcanic Intelligence

EarthRadar24 integrates two authoritative complementary sources to represent volcanic activity:

1. Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program (GVP)

The GVP provides the authoritative global baseline inventory of 1,470 Holocene volcanoes. Erupting statuses are curated from the GVP Weekly Volcanic Activity Report. Under Smithsonian criteria, a "continuing eruption" designates an ongoing eruptive period and does not imply continuous explosive activity every minute.

2. USGS Volcano Hazards Program Activity Notice System (HANS)

USGS HANS provides operational volcanic alert levels (NORMAL, ADVISORY, WATCH, WARNING) and aviation color codes (GREEN, YELLOW, ORANGE, RED).

  • Geographic Scope: HANS monitors only United States territory and jurisdictions (Alaska, Cascades, California, Yellowstone, Hawaii, and Northern Mariana Islands).
  • Event-Driven Notice Behavior: HANS notices are published when status changes occur. Once a volcano is returned to NORMAL, no new notices are issued until activity alters. An older notice date reflects ongoing background conditions rather than an active field observation on the day of display.

Classification Precedence & Visible Scope

  1. Eruption: Verified against the GVP continuing-eruption bulletin snapshot.
  2. Minor Activity / Eruption Warning: USGS HANS alert level WARNING or WATCH (excluding volcanoes already classified under Eruption).
  3. Unrest: USGS HANS alert level ADVISORY.
  4. Normal / Background: USGS HANS alert level NORMAL (monitored US volcanoes at background).
  5. Status Unknown: Baseline Holocene volcanoes with no active alert or GVP continuing-eruption report. These are preserved in the data catalog but omitted from map markers to prevent implying monitored global coverage.

Limitation: There is no unified global real-time alert system covering every active volcano. Approximately 1,380+ Holocene volcanoes globally are not covered by real-time public telemetry feeds.

Tsunami Warning Architecture

Tsunami alert telemetry is ingested from the NOAA National Weather Service and US Tsunami Warning Centers (tsunami.gov).

  • Operational Scope: Current active warnings and 24-hour summaries cover the United States, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands.
  • Multi-Provider Extensibility: EarthRadar24 is architected to ingest international regional feeds (including PTWC International Products, JMA NWPTAC, INCOIS ITEWC, and GDACS) as machine-readable public CAP endpoints are validated.

Attribution & Licensing

  • GEM Global Active Faults DatabaseTectonic fault lines and fault slip rates are provided by the GEM Foundation Global Active Faults project, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
  • Territorial & Administrative BoundariesGeographic land and maritime attribution is determined via the open-source country-coder library (MIT License), which embeds boundaries derived from OpenStreetMap and Natural Earth.
  • U.S. Federal Government Scientific DataUSGS earthquake feeds, USGS HANS activity notices, and NOAA National Weather Service tsunami alerts are scientific works prepared by United States Federal Government agencies, in the public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105.
  • Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program (GVP)Volcano catalog records and continuing eruption reports are provided by the Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program for open scientific reference and research with proper attribution, governed by the Smithsonian Institution Terms of Use.