> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://tools.osintnewsletter.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://tools.osintnewsletter.com/osint-tools/monitor-the-situation.md). # Monitor the Situation Tool Description: Browser-based situational-awareness dashboard bringing breaking news, conflicts, military aircraft, maritime, weather, infrastructure events etc. into interactive maps. | **Monitor the Situation** | **Quick Overview** | | ------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | URL | | | What it does | Aggregates live global events, crisis reporting, aircraft and maritime activity, weather, disasters and infrastructure information into interactive maps. | | How to use it | Open the global or regional map, select relevant layers or filters, open events, and examine their supporting sources and timestamps. | | Cost | Free. | | Account required | No account required for the public dashboard. | | Cookies | A mixture of a first-party privacy cookie and several third-party advertising, tracking and synchronisation cookies. | | Ownership | Built by Ryan McEntush and David Oks. | | Use in Reporting | Supports discovery, monitoring and corroboration of developing global events, conflicts, disasters and strategic activity. | ### What does Monitor the Situation do? Monitor the Situation provides a live geographic view of global news and events. It combines public reports with aircraft, maritime, weather, disaster, infrastructure, and connectivity data.The platform includes global and regional crisis maps, a military aircraft tracker, ship and naval tracker, GPS interference map, internet outage map and live news/video feeds. Events can be opened to examine their supporting reports, timestamps, severity and confidence indicators. The platform uses automated processing to group reports relating to the same event and generate summaries and locations. **The lowdown:** It’s particularly useful for rapid situational awareness when an event is developing. ### How to Use: **1. Open the global map or select an appropriate regional map, such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, or another geographic area.** **2. Select relevant layers, filters or trackers, such as conflict events, military aircraft, ships, GPS interference, internet outages, weather or disasters then open an individual event to examine its location, severity, confidence, supporting reports and timestamps.** **3. Follow the underlying source reports and compare them with independent primary or reputable sources. Record the event URL, source information and observation time when preserving findings for an investigation.** ### Cost * [x] Free * [ ] Partially Free * [ ] Paid ## Data Processing ### Account Required: * [ ] Yes * [x] No ### Cookies: The site uses a first-party usprivacy cookie for privacy/consent preferences and a number of third-party cookies associated with advertising, visitor identification and identifier synchronisation. The captured vdz\_sync, visitor-id, wrvUserID, xxuid and uids cookies are set by external domains and appear to support third-party advertising or visitor-recognition functions. ### Use in Reporting Monitor the Situation can be used to: * Identify developing conflicts, political events, humanitarian crises, disasters and other significant global incidents. * Investigate the geographic location and reported timing of developing events. * Compare supporting reports from news publishers, official sources and other public information. * Monitor military and strategically relevant aircraft using publicly available ADS-B observations. * Investigate maritime activity and vessel movements using available AIS information. * Examine GPS interference hotspots and compare them with aircraft movements and nearby events. * Investigate internet-disruption indicators, infrastructure incidents, fires and other geographically relevant activity. * Identify potential relationships between developing events and observable aircraft, maritime, infrastructure or connectivity activity. * Document event URLs, supporting sources, timestamps, locations, severity and confidence indicators. * Generate investigative leads that can subsequently be verified against original or authoritative sources. Whilst relatively new, the platform has been discussed and used by OSINT practitioners and independent researchers for real-time monitoring of conflicts, breaking events, aircraft and maritime activity. Examples include conflict[ monitoring around the Iran/Israel/US conflict](https://aledmj.substack.com/p/monitoring-the-situation) and [independent OSINT assessments](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/wingbits_if-youve-been-monitoring-the-situation-to-activity-7465235679627599872-D8Mp) of the platform. | **Capabilities** | **Limitations** | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Aggregates global conflict, political, humanitarian, economic and disaster events into an interactive map. | It is not a complete record of every global event and coverage varies by source and region. | | Provides aircraft and maritime tracking alongside reported events. | Aircraft and ship coverage depends on available broadcasts and receiver coverage; some positions can be delayed or missing. | | Provides supporting reports and timestamps for individual events. | Aggregated reports and AI-generated summaries can contain errors and should be checked against the original sources. | | Provides separate severity and confidence indicators. | Automated confidence scores are evidence indicators, not guarantees that an event or individual detail is correct. | | Includes specialist layers for GPS interference, internet disruption, weather, fires and infrastructure. | GPS hotspots do not establish the identity or location of a jammer, and internet anomalies do not establish their cause. | | Provides regional maps, live news/video feeds and multiple tracking views from one interface. | Events can leave the rolling live feed and historical coverage may be limited. | ### Summary Monitor the Situation fits best within the discovery and monitoring stages of the OSINT workflow and is particularly useful for spotting developing events and generating leads that can then be independently verified. It should however be treated as an aggregation and situational-awareness layer rather than a primary source of truth. ### Ownership The project was built by [Ryan McEntush](https://x.com/rmcentush) (California-based) and [David Oks.](https://x.com/davideoks) ### Ethical Considerations * Treat aggregated or AI-generated information as investigative leads, not automatically verified facts. * Record the observation time because live event data can change rapidly. * Distinguish between a source reporting an event and the event being independently confirmed. * Do not assume an aircraft, ship or infrastructure asset is connected to a nearby event simply because it appears on the same map. * Do not interpret GPS-interference hotspots as proof of the location or identity of a jammer. * Do not interpret internet anomalies as proof of an outage's cause without additional evidence. * Be particularly careful when reporting information involving active military operations, civilians, casualties or rapidly changing conflicts. ### Related Tools: * [Liveuamap](/osint-tools/liveuamap.md) * [Geoconfirmed](/osint-tools/geoconfirmed.md) * [Flightradar24](/osint-tools/flightradar24.md) * [ADS-B Exchange](/osint-tools/global-ads-b-exchange.md) * [Marine Traffic](/osint-tools/marinetraffic.md) #### Sources