Google and NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command) have teamed up to bring you realtime coverage of Santa’s sleigh-ride around the world. You can follow Santa as he travels the world sliding down chimneys, dropping off presents, and eating entirely too many chocolate chip cookies.
NORAD has confirmed that Santa and his fully-loaded, reindeer-powered sleigh took off from the North Pole and soared into the arctic sky at 6:00 a.m. EST (5:00 a.m. CST, 4:00 a.m. MST, 3:00 a.m. PST). NORAD radar is tracking Rudolph’s bright red nose, and satellite imagery is providing minute-by-minute coverage of Santa’s location.
While watching Santa’s progress across a world map is pretty cool, that’s just the tip of the iceberg this year. Instead of just watching a 2D Santa hop across a flat map, you can see Santa in 3D using the Google Earth plugin. Tips on setting that up are here. After you’ve got the plugin installed, just visit the 3D tracker to see what’s really going on with jolly old St. Nick.
With mobile being the new center of attention in the tech world, Google and NORAD have also made it possible to check on Santa from your smartphone using Google Maps for mobile. Just open it up and do a search for “Santa” to see his latest location.
If you’re interested in seeing videos of where Santa has been or can’t get the Google Earth plugin working, you can watch video of where he’s been.
Santa Cams are ultra-cool, high-tech, high-speed digital cameras pre-positioned at many locations around the world only on December 24th. The cameras capture images and videos of Santa and his reindeer as they make their journey around the world.
For the kids, or adults who still believe in Santa, you can visit the Kids’ Countdown section to browse shops in the North Pole, play games, and see what’s going on with Santa’s helpers.
Making sure to keep up with the latest in social networking, you can also track Santa via Facebook and on Twitter at @noradsanta.