Satvis: 3D satellite tracker and pass predictor

Satvis is a free, open-source satellite tracker that runs in the browser. It draws more than 12,000 satellites on a 3D globe in real time, across fourteen catalog groups: Starlink, GPS and the other GNSS constellations, weather and Earth-observation craft, the ISS and other crewed stations. Tell it where you are and it works out when each one passes overhead. The sky view then trades the globe for a ground-level camera aimed by your phone's compass and gyroscope. You look for the satellite in the sky rather than on a map of it.

See it in action

The globe with weather satellites labelled around it — The globe, with the weather satellites switched on. Open it

A 3D model of the ISS above the curve of the Earth, on its orbit line — Tracking the ISS: the camera follows the station along its orbit. Follow it

Night sky over the Lauterbrunnen valley, with labelled navigation, weather and OneWeb satellites above the cliffs — The sky view at night from the Lauterbrunnen valley: navigation, weather and OneWeb satellites overhead, and the cliffs hiding the rest. Stand there

What it does

Visualize more than 12,000 satellites on a 3D globe in real time, propagated in the browser with SGP4 from CelesTrak GP element sets (OMM/TLE)
Draw points, labels, orbits, orbit tracks, ground tracks, sensor cones and 3D models per satellite, coloured by orbit class (LEO, MEO, GEO, HEO)
Switch any of the 14 catalog groups on and off (Starlink, GNSS, weather, Earth observation, crewed stations), or search out a single satellite
Set ground stations from geolocation or a point you pick on the map, then list their upcoming passes and get a local browser notification before one starts
Show the globe in 3D, flattened to 2D or in Columbus view, over a base map, star field and terrain you choose
Find a satellite in the sky overhead rather than on a map, in a ground-level sky view aimed by your phone's compass and gyroscope and walked with the movement keys
Add OpenStreetMap buildings to the globe, or Google's photorealistic tiles under the sky view
Share the exact view you are looking at as a link: the url carries the satellites, the components, the ground station and the map layers
Install it as a Progressive Web App and keep using it offline, from a cached element-set snapshot and base map
Deploy it serverless: static files on a CDN, with an optional Cloudflare Worker serving fresh satellite data

Where the data comes from

Element sets come from CelesTrak as OMM JSON, the format replacing TLE for new objects, and a Cloudflare Worker serves them, refreshed several times a day. Positions are propagated from them in the browser with SGP4, through satellite.js. A snapshot of the same element sets ships inside the app, so everything still works offline. What each satellite is (its country, operator, manufacturer, bus, mass and size) comes from Jonathan McDowell's GCAT: data from J. McDowell, planet4589.org, under CC BY 4.0.

Built with

CesiumJS draws the globe, Vue and Nuxt UI the interface, and Workbox the service worker. The icons are Lucide's, under the ISC licence and, for those drawn from Feather, the MIT licence: its notice. Everything but the data API is static files on a CDN, so there is no server to run. Created by Florian Mauracher and maintained on github.com/Flowm/satvis under the MIT licence. An iOS app draws the same satellites natively, from the same data, and notifies you before a pass.