How to read the map
- Arrows point along each aircraft’s track, which is the direction it is moving over the ground.
- Color shows altitude: warm colors are low, from small planes and helicopters to airliners on approach, and cool colors are high-altitude cruise. Gray dots are aircraft on the ground. A red ring marks an emergency squawk.
- Clusters of color outline the country’s big hubs: Atlanta, Dallas–Fort Worth, Denver, Chicago, Charlotte and the Northeast corridor. You can also see the jet routes connecting them.
The map can hold the whole national picture, often more than 7,000 aircraft, so we draw it on a single canvas to keep it fast on phones. It only downloads the aircraft inside your current view, updates about every 15 seconds, and pauses when you switch tabs. The region buttons jump to Alaska, Hawaii, Europe or the whole world. For a single aircraft’s trail, tap it and follow the link to airplanes.live.
Want only what’s over your location? heywhatsabove.com centers on you and lists every aircraft overhead, with distance and direction.