docs/features.mdx
World Monitor provides a comprehensive set of features for real-time global intelligence monitoring, from interactive maps and data layers to market tracking and customizable panel layouts.
Dense regions with many data points use intelligent clustering to prevent visual clutter:
How It Works
Grouping Logic
This prevents issues like Dubai and Riyadh companies appearing merged at global zoom, while still providing clean visualization at continental scales.
Layers are organized into logical groups for efficient monitoring:
Geopolitical
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Conflicts | Active conflict zones with involved parties and status |
| Hotspots | Intelligence hotspots with activity levels based on news correlation |
| Sanctions | Countries under economic sanctions regimes |
| Protests | Live social unrest events from ACLED and GDELT |
Military & Strategic
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Military Bases | 226 global military installations from 9 operators |
| Nuclear Facilities | Power plants, weapons labs, enrichment sites |
| Gamma Irradiators | IAEA-tracked Category 1-3 radiation sources |
| APT Groups | State-sponsored cyber threat actors with geographic attribution |
| Spaceports | 12 major launch facilities (NASA, SpaceX, Roscosmos, CNSA, ESA, ISRO, JAXA) |
| Critical Minerals | Strategic mineral deposits (lithium, cobalt, rare earths) with operator info |
Infrastructure
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Undersea Cables | 86 submarine cable routes worldwide |
| Pipelines | 88 operating oil & gas pipelines across all continents |
| Internet Outages | Network disruptions via Cloudflare Radar |
| AI Datacenters | 313 AI compute clusters tracked from Epoch AI dataset |
Transport
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Ships (AIS) | Live vessel tracking via AIS with chokepoint monitoring and 62 strategic ports* |
| Delays | FAA airport delay status and ground stops |
*AIS data via AISStream.io uses terrestrial receivers with stronger coverage in European/Atlantic waters. Middle East, Asia, and open ocean coverage is limited. Satellite AIS providers (Spire, Kpler) offer global coverage but require commercial licenses.
Natural Events
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Natural | USGS earthquakes (M4.5+) + NASA EONET events (storms, wildfires, volcanoes, floods) |
| Weather | NWS severe weather warnings |
Overlays & Labels
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Day/Night | Real-time solar terminator overlay showing day and night zones (updates every 5 minutes) |
| Economic | Tabbed economic panel with FRED indicators, EIA oil analytics, and USASpending.gov government contracts |
| Countries | Country boundary labels |
| Waterways | Strategic waterways and chokepoints |
| Trade Routes | 19 global trade routes (container, energy, bulk) with multi-segment arcs through strategic chokepoints |
| Fires (FIRMS) | NASA FIRMS satellite fire detection (VIIRS thermal hotspots) for wildfire and operational risk monitoring |
Webcams
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Live Webcams | 22 live streams across 5 geopolitical regions (Middle East, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, Americas) with automatic fallback handling |
Beyond raw data feeds, the dashboard provides synthesized intelligence panels:
| Panel | Purpose |
|---|---|
| AI Strategic Posture | Theater-level military aggregation with strike capability analysis |
| Strategic Risk Overview | Composite risk score combining all intelligence modules |
| Country Instability Index | Real-time stability scores for 24 monitored countries |
| Infrastructure Cascade | Dependency analysis for cables, pipelines, and chokepoints |
| Live Intelligence | GDELT-powered topic feeds (Military, Cyber, Nuclear, Sanctions) |
| Intel Feed | Curated defense and security news sources |
| Country Brief | AI-generated country profiles with key indicators, risk factors, and recent developments |
| Aviation Intelligence | 6-tab aviation panel (Ops, Flights, Airlines, Tracking, News, Prices) with NOTAM closure detection across 111 monitored airports |
| Climate Anomalies | Temperature and precipitation deviations across 15 zones using Open-Meteo ERA5 data against rolling baselines |
| Displacement Tracking | UN OCHA HAPI refugee, asylum seeker, and IDP data with origin/host country perspectives |
| Gulf Economies | Indices, currencies, and oil data for 6 GCC countries (Saudi, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman) |
| WTO Trade Policy | Active trade restrictions, tariff trends, bilateral trade flows, and SPS/TBT barriers |
| Central Banks & BIS | Policy rates and monetary decisions from 13 central banks via BIS data |
| Market Watchlist | User-defined stock/commodity/crypto symbol lists (up to 50 symbols) |
These panels transform raw signals into actionable intelligence by applying scoring algorithms, trend detection, and cross-source correlation.
Multi-source RSS aggregation across categories:
The SOURCES button in the header opens a global source management modal, enabling fine-grained control over which news sources appear in the dashboard.
Capabilities:
Use Cases:
Technical Details:
Dedicated panels provide focused coverage for strategically significant regions:
| Panel | Coverage | Key Topics |
|---|---|---|
| Middle East | MENA region | Israel-Gaza, Iran, Gulf states, Red Sea |
| Africa | Sub-Saharan Africa | Sahel instability, coups, insurgencies, resources |
| Latin America | Central & South America | Venezuela, drug trafficking, regional politics |
| Asia-Pacific | East & Southeast Asia | China-Taiwan, Korean peninsula, ASEAN |
| Energy & Resources | Global | Oil markets, nuclear, mining, energy security |
Each panel aggregates region-specific sources to provide concentrated situational awareness for that theater. This enables focused monitoring when global events warrant attention to a particular region.
Embedded YouTube live streams from major news networks with channel switching:
| Channel | Coverage |
|---|---|
| Bloomberg | Business & financial news |
| Sky News | UK & international news |
| Euronews | European perspective |
| DW News | German international broadcaster |
| France 24 | French global news |
| Al Arabiya | Middle East news (Arabic perspective) |
| Al Jazeera | Middle East & international news |
Core Features:
Performance Optimizations:
The live stream panel uses the YouTube IFrame Player API rather than raw iframe embedding. This provides several advantages:
| Feature | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Persistent player | No iframe reload on mute/play/channel change |
| API control | Direct playVideo(), pauseVideo(), mute() calls |
| Reduced bandwidth | Same stream continues across state changes |
| Faster switching | Channel changes via loadVideoById() |
Idle Detection:
To conserve resources, the panel implements automatic idle pausing:
| Trigger | Action |
|---|---|
| Tab hidden | Stream pauses (via Visibility API) |
| 5 min idle | Stream pauses (no mouse/keyboard activity) |
| User returns | Stream resumes automatically |
| Manual pause | User intent tracked separately |
This prevents background tabs from consuming bandwidth while preserving user preference for manually-paused streams.
Universal command palette for navigating the entire application. All 55 panels, map views, layer toggles, and country briefs are searchable:
Create personalized keyword alerts that scan all incoming news:
Monitors persist across sessions via LocalStorage.
The dashboard highlights newly-arrived items so you can quickly identify what changed since your last look.
| Indicator | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| NEW tag | 2 minutes | Badge on items that just appeared |
| Glow highlight | 30 seconds | Subtle animation drawing attention |
| Panel badge | Until viewed | Count of new items in collapsed panels |
The system uses IntersectionObserver to detect when panels become visible:
Each panel maintains independent activity state:
This enables focused monitoring: you can collapse panels you have reviewed and see at a glance which have new activity.
The dashboard captures periodic snapshots for historical analysis:
Baselines (7-day and 30-day averages) are stored in IndexedDB for deviation analysis.
The Minerals layer displays strategic mineral extraction sites essential for modern technology and defense supply chains.
| Mineral | Strategic Importance | Major Producers |
|---|---|---|
| Lithium | EV batteries, energy storage | Australia, Chile, China |
| Cobalt | Battery cathodes, superalloys | DRC (60%+ global), Australia |
| Rare Earths | Magnets, electronics, defense | China (60%+ global), Australia, USA |
| Site | Mineral | Country | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greenbushes | Lithium | Australia | World's largest hard-rock lithium mine |
| Salar de Atacama | Lithium | Chile | Largest brine lithium source |
| Mutanda | Cobalt | DRC | World's largest cobalt mine |
| Tenke Fungurume | Cobalt | DRC | Major Chinese-owned cobalt source |
| Bayan Obo | Rare Earths | China | 45% of global REE production |
| Mountain Pass | Rare Earths | USA | Only active US rare earth mine |
Critical minerals are geopolitically concentrated:
News about these regions or mining companies can signal supply disruptions affecting technology and defense sectors.
The map displays geographic attribution markers for major state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups. These markers show the approximate operational centers of known threat actors.
| Group | Aliases | Sponsor | Notable Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| APT28/29 | Fancy Bear, Cozy Bear | Russia (GRU/FSB) | Election interference, government espionage |
| APT41 | Double Dragon | China (MSS) | Supply chain attacks, intellectual property theft |
| Lazarus | Hidden Cobra | North Korea (RGB) | Financial theft, cryptocurrency heists |
| APT33/35 | Elfin, Charming Kitten | Iran (IRGC) | Critical infrastructure, aerospace targeting |
Cyber operations often correlate with geopolitical tensions. When news reports reference Russian cyber activity during a Ukraine escalation, or Iranian hacking during Middle East tensions, these markers provide geographic context for the threat landscape.
APT markers appear as warning triangles with distinct styling. Clicking a marker shows:
The Protests layer aggregates civil unrest data from two independent sources, providing corroboration and global coverage.
Academic-grade conflict data with human-verified events:
Real-time news-derived event data:
Events from both sources are deduplicated using a 0.5 degree spatial grid and date matching. When both ACLED and GDELT report events in the same area:
| Severity | Criteria |
|---|---|
| High | Fatalities reported, riots, or clashes |
| Medium | Large demonstrations, strikes |
| Low | Smaller protests, localized events |
Events near intelligence hotspots are cross-referenced to provide geopolitical context.
To reduce visual clutter and focus attention on significant events, the map displays only high-severity protests and riots:
| Displayed | Event Type | Visual |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | Riot | Bright red marker |
| Yes | High-severity protest | Red marker |
| No | Medium/low-severity protest | Not shown on map |
Lower-severity events are still tracked for CII scoring and data exports: they simply do not create map markers. This filtering prevents dense urban areas (which naturally generate more low-severity demonstrations) from overwhelming the map display.
The Flights layer tracks airport delays and ground stops at major US airports using FAA NASSTATUS data.
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Ground Stop | No departures permitted; severe disruption |
| Ground Delay | Departures held; arrival rate limiting |
| Arrival Delay | Inbound traffic backed up |
| Departure Delay | Outbound traffic delayed |
| Severity | Average Delay | Visual |
|---|---|---|
| Severe | ≥60 minutes | Red |
| Major | 45-59 minutes | Orange |
| Moderate | 25-44 minutes | Yellow |
| Minor | 15-24 minutes | Gray |
111 airports across 5 regions (Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, MENA, Africa) are monitored through three independent data sources (FAA ASWS, AviationStack, ICAO NOTAM):
Ground stops are particularly significant: they indicate severe disruption (weather, security, or infrastructure failure) and can cascade across the network.
The Prediction Markets panel focuses on geopolitically relevant markets, filtering out sports and entertainment.
Markets matching these topics are displayed:
Markets matching these are filtered out:
This ensures the panel shows markets like "Will Russia withdraw from Ukraine?" rather than "Will the Lakers win the championship?"
The dashboard organizes data into draggable, collapsible panels that persist user preferences across sessions.
Panels can be reorganized by dragging:
This enables personalized layouts: put your most-watched panels at the top.
Toggle panels on/off via the Settings menu:
Hiding a panel is different from disabling a layer: the panel itself does not appear in the interface.
Panels are organized by intelligence priority:
| Priority | Panels | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | Strategic Risk, Live Intel | Immediate situational awareness |
| Primary | News, CII, Markets | Core monitoring data |
| Supporting | Predictions, Economic, Monitor | Supplementary analysis |
| Reference | Live News Video | Background context |
Panel state survives browser restarts:
The dashboard is optimized for mobile devices with a streamlined interface that prioritizes usability on smaller screens.
When accessing the dashboard on a mobile device for the first time, a welcome modal explains the mobile-optimized experience:
On screens narrower than 768px or touch devices:
The mobile experience focuses on the most essential intelligence layers:
| Layer | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Conflicts | Active conflict zones |
| Hotspots | Intelligence hotspots with activity levels |
| Sanctions | Countries under economic sanctions |
| Outages | Network disruptions |
| Natural | Earthquakes, storms, wildfires |
| Weather | Severe weather warnings |
Layers disabled by default on mobile (but available on desktop):
This curated set provides situational awareness without overwhelming the interface or consuming excessive data/battery.
The dashboard includes browser-side machine learning that works without any server connection:
These models run entirely in the browser via Web Workers, providing intelligence analysis capabilities even when offline or when API keys are not configured.
Cmd+K / Ctrl+K - Open searchUp/Down - Navigate search resultsEnter - Select resultEsc - Close modalsInfrastructure markers (nuclear facilities, economic centers, ports) display without labels to reduce visual clutter. Full information is available through interaction:
| Layer | Label Behavior | Interaction |
|---|---|---|
| Nuclear facilities | Hidden | Click for popover with details |
| Economic centers | Hidden | Click for popover with details |
| Protests | Hidden | Hover for tooltip, click for details |
| Military bases | Hidden | Click for popover with base info |
| Hotspots | Visible | Color-coded activity levels |
| Conflicts | Visible | Status and involved parties |
This design prioritizes geographic awareness over label density: users can quickly scan for markers and then interact for context.
The current view state is encoded in the URL, enabling:
Encoded Parameters:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
lat, lon | Map center coordinates |
zoom | Zoom level (1-10) |
time | Active time filter (1h, 6h, 24h, 7d) |
view | Preset view (global, us, mena) |
layers | Comma-separated enabled layer IDs |
Example: ?lat=38.9&lon=-77&zoom=6&layers=bases,conflicts,hotspots
Values are validated and clamped to prevent invalid states.