The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is dusting off its Santa Cams and getting ready to track Rudolph’s red nose on the NORAD Tracks Santa® website. This year NORAD is using 2D and 3D Santa trackers provided by AGI to analyze and visualize the data it receives on December 24 from fighter jets, satellites, radars and Santa Cams located across the globe. Learn more and watch the teaser trailer.

In the blink of an eye, it will be time for Santa to make his annual trek around the world with presents for good little girls and boys. And, you know what that means: the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is dusting off its Santa Cams and getting ready to track Rudolph’s red nose on the NORAD Tracks Santa® website. This year NORAD is using 2D and 3D Santa trackers provided by AGI to analyze and visualize the data it receives on December 24 from fighter jets, satellites, radars and Santa Cams located across the globe.

The 3D tracker, which analyzes data and shows you where Santa visited last, is built on Cesium, an open-source 3D virtual globe founded by AGI. Cesium enables you to zoom and pan along Santa’s journey. By clicking on the video icons, you will see special video captured by NORAD’s Santa Cams, and by clicking on other map icons, you can learn more about the locations Santa visits during his trek. The 2D tracker, built with Bing® Maps, has the same information-gathering features as the 3D tracker, and it is the alternate option for systems that do not support 3D. See for more information.

This year, the NORAD Tracks Santa website will be hosted by Microsoft on Windows Azure®, and tracking opportunities are available on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and more! NORAD launches the site on December 1 with countdown activities for kids of all ages, and they are also offering free apps from the Apple Store, Google Play and Windows Market to extend the fun. So, get your computers and smartphones ready now for a really great holiday season!