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Atlas for OSINT analysts
This guide is for OSINT analysts working on vessel, aircraft, and geolocated event investigations. Read the OSINT operational security guide alongside it — the threat model in OSINT work is non-trivial.
Recommended layout
| Zone | Panel | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Main canvas | 3D Globe | The primary surface — vessels, aircraft, news pins |
| Bottom strip | Timeline & events | Scrub history, sequence the narrative |
| Right rail | Detail card | Telemetry, route, AI intel for the focused entity |
| Sidebar collapsed | News | Geolocated news ribbon |
The globe + timeline is the canonical OSINT pair. Save it as a custom dashboard named "OSINT" so it loads in one click.
Investigation patterns
Pattern A — The single entity
Goal: deeply understand one vessel or aircraft.
- Find the entity by name / MMSI / callsign in the Globe sub-bar filter.
- Save it to your saved subset.
- Open Timeline & events and scrub backward — replay the recent route on the globe.
- Pin notable events with notes (sudden altitude drop, port arrival, holding pattern).
- Use AI chat → Generate intel for a narrative summary.
See How do I — Track a vessel and Monitor an aircraft route for click-by-click recipes.
Pattern B — The geographic question
Goal: "What happened in this region between dates X and Y?"
- Pan and zoom the globe to the region.
- Set the timeline window to the dates of interest.
- Filter the timeline by event type — narrow to vessel events, then aircraft, then news.
- Cross-reference the News panel for the same region/window.
- Ask AI chat for a narrative summary with the timeline window in context.
Pattern C — The sectoral question
Goal: "Is something unusual happening across a fleet/category?"
- Save a subset of vessels or aircraft (operator, type, flag).
- Watch the saved subset's positions on the globe; toggle saved-only mode in the sub-bar.
- Look for behavioral clusters — formation flight, simultaneous port arrivals, unusual loitering.
- Combine with news alerts on relevant keywords (Alerts).
What Atlas can and can't tell you
| Atlas can | Atlas can't |
|---|---|
| Show current AIS / ADS-B positions | Show vessels with transponders disabled |
| Replay recent routes | Reconstruct routes from before the data window |
| Geolocate news pins | Verify news source credibility |
| Summarize patterns with AI | Confirm intent — only behavior |
Always verify with at least a second source before acting on or publishing an OSINT finding.
Coverage gaps
- AIS dense in coastal waters, sparse mid-ocean.
- ADS-B dense over Europe / North America, sparse over oceans and remote interiors.
- Some military, government, and certain GA aircraft transmit limited or no ADS-B.
- See Data delays & limits for specifics.
Operational security
OSINT work changes your threat model — what you investigate may attract attention. Before doing anything sensitive, read OSINT operational security:
- Account isolation (separate identity per investigation type)
- 2FA setup (mandatory for OSINT-tier accounts)
- Session hygiene (logging out, clearing local state)
- What AIS/ADS-B reveal about the watcher (they don't, but the reverse query path can)