Phantom Tide — Platform Brief
What this platform does
Phantom Tide correlates live maritime and airspace data to surface contradictions, anomalies, and absence signals that are not visible in any single feed. AIS vessel broadcasts are held against VIIRS satellite detections, NGA navigational warnings, NDBC buoy and ship observations, NOTAM airspace restrictions, OpenSky aircraft state vectors, GPS disruption reports, and NOAA space weather — and the gaps between them are treated as the primary intelligence signal.
The platform is not a data aggregator. It is a contradiction engine. AIS says a ship is here. Satellite thermal sees nothing. VIIRS detects a vessel. AIS shows nothing nearby. These discrepancies are the product — not the individual data points.
In practical terms, Phantom Tide is best described as an OSINT platform with strong geospatial intelligence workflows. It evaluates mapped geometry, movement, timing, proximity, and absence across open and public-interest sources. It should not be framed as a SIGINT product.
What is unique here
Phantom Tide is strongest where separate feeds become one analyst decision instead of one more map toggle.
- Convergence zones with a score — multi-source overlap is ranked with contributor weights and evidence families so the map answers where attention should go first.
- Tracked aircraft workflow — aircraft are surfaced with mission cues, watchlist context, alert banners, and direct map-focus actions rather than as a passive ADS-B layer.
- Fast context pivots — proximity query, Area Intelligence Report, thermal-to-infrastructure correlation, and table-to-map jumps are designed to reduce time-to-question.
The strongest intelligence signal is often the gap between what is being broadcast and what is actually happening. Every layer is evaluated against that lens.
Active data sources
| Source | Content | Cadence | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIS | Vessel position, speed, heading, MMSI, vessel type from AIS broadcasts | Continuous | Live |
| OpenSky | ADS-B aircraft state vectors — position, altitude, callsign, squawk, and the live aircraft layer used by tracked-aircraft alerts and mission-context enrichment | 5 min | Live |
| SWPC | NOAA space weather — Kp index, DST, solar flare context, ICAO advisories | 5 min | Live |
| SMAPS / MODU | NGA special message advisories — GPS jamming, security events, cable alerts, military activity. Includes MODU (mobile offshore drilling unit) position reports. | 5 min | Live |
| FleetLeaks | Sanctioned fleet AIS position data — vessels under OFAC, EU, UK FCDO, and UN sanctions with spoofing and dark-gap detection | 5 min | Live |
| NOTAM | Airspace restrictions, closures, military exercise zones, and geometry extraction for map overlay | Hourly | Hours |
| NDBC | NOAA buoy and ship weather observations — wind speed/direction, sea state, air and sea pressure, wave height | Hourly | Hours |
| NDBC DART | NOAA DART deep-ocean pressure buoy anomaly events — tsunami detection network with deviation from baseline | 15 min | Hours |
| NERACOOS | Northeast Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems — Gulf of Maine mooring observations including ocean current, salinity, and wave data | 60 min | Hours |
| GUIDE | USCG NAVCEN analyst-reviewed GPS disruption reports with location, classification, and source attribution | 6 h | Hours |
| MARAD | US Maritime Administration maritime security communications — MSCI advisories covering piracy, terrorism, weather, and port-specific warnings by region | 6 h | Hours |
| ICC-CCS | International Chamber of Commerce — Commercial Crime Services piracy and armed robbery incident reports with position and attack classification | Daily | Hours |
| ECCC | Environment and Climate Change Canada marine weather warnings — gale, storm, and special marine warnings for Canadian coastal waters | 30 min | Hours |
| SIGMET | Aviation Weather Center significant meteorological hazard polygons — turbulence, icing, volcanic ash, and tropical cyclone advisories affecting airspace | 20 min | Hours |
| VIIRS | NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 satellite night-light and thermal detections — vessel-brightness anomalies and offshore fire/heat events | 3–24 h | Hours |
| USGS | USGS M2.5+ global earthquake feed — seismic events that may indicate subsea infrastructure risk or correlate with anomalous vessel and buoy behavior | 15 min | Hours |
| TankerTrackers | Independent maritime intelligence — seized and Iran Navy vessel positions, and maritime risk zone polygons with analyst-classified threat areas | 30 min | Hours |
| DailyMem | NGA NAVAREA IV/XII, HYDROPAC, HYDROLANT, and HYDROARC broadcast navigation warnings covering the full global set of active NAVTEX/SafetyNET notices | Daily | Daily |
| GPS Advisory | USCG GPS constellation health bulletins — degraded and unusable satellite PRNs with predicted availability windows | 4 h | Daily |
| Entity Feed | Supplemental entity tracker — independent confirmation of AIS/OpenSky targets against a curated watchlist plus VanIsle Network infrastructure (ports, desalination plants, pipelines, refineries). Includes AIS dark-gap and vessel-loitering compliance signals as convergence contributors. Premium tier. | 10 min | Live |
Reference and infrastructure layers
In addition to live data feeds, Phantom Tide overlays static reference geometry that gives spatial context to live events. These layers do not update continuously — they are refreshed on a daily or weekly schedule and represent known fixed infrastructure.
| Layer | Content | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Submarine Cables | Subsea cable corridors and landing points in US and near-US waters | NOAA MarineCadastre |
| Vessel Routing | Traffic separation schemes, recommended routes, and routing measures | NOAA MarineCadastre |
| Shipping Lanes | Marine transportation polygons — lanes, regulations, and maintained channels | NOAA MarineCadastre |
| EEZ Boundaries | Exclusive Economic Zone boundary lines providing jurisdictional context | MarineRegions.org |
| Danger Zones | Military exclusion zones, naval range areas, and restricted access polygons in US waters | NOAA MarineCadastre |
| Lightering Zones | Designated ship-to-ship cargo transfer areas — loitering within these zones is contextualised differently from unexplained open-water dwell | NOAA MarineCadastre |
| Anchorages | Designated anchorage areas in US coastal waters | NOAA MarineCadastre |
| ISA Exploration Areas | International Seabed Authority polymetallic nodule and hydrothermal vent exploration contract areas in the Area / ABNJ | ISA |
| Nuclear / Energy | Nuclear power plant and wave/tidal energy facility locations | Global Power Plant Database |
| Data Centers | Internet infrastructure facility locations for digital-infrastructure proximity context | Aggregated |
| VanIsle Network | Strategic infrastructure overlay from the VanIsle Network — ports, desalination plants, petroleum pipelines, and refineries. Served via Supplemental Entity Feed toggle. Premium tier. | VanIsle collector |
Intelligence method
Sources are treated as arguments in the same case file. The rule engine evaluates combinations of data across sources and time windows — not individual feeds in isolation. An AIS absence alone is unremarkable. An AIS absence in a zone with an active SMAPS GPS jamming advisory, a VIIRS detection at the same coordinates, and a DailyMem exercise notice issued two days prior is a candidate for analyst review.
Three times are kept distinct for every event: when it occurred, when it was collected, and when it expires. Rule outputs and hypothesis overlays show their working — the source combination and confidence that produced them — rather than presenting derived conclusions as raw facts.
Design principles
- Evidence provenance is visible. Source, collection time, and data age are surfaced, not buried in summaries.
- Drill-down at local zoom is richer than overview, not noisier. The platform applies progressive disclosure: quiet at world scale, detailed at regional and local scale.
- Rule outputs are deterministic and auditable. The system shows which sources fired and with what confidence before producing a hypothesis.
- The platform narrows what an analyst needs to look at. It does not replace the analyst.
- Subtraction is treated as a design decision. Motion, simultaneous panels, and equal visual weight on unequal data create noise. The platform tries to reduce each of those.
Constraints and limitations
This platform is a research and analytical aid. It is not a navigational system, maritime safety tool, aviation dispatch authority, emergency management system, or safety-of-life tool of any kind. Platform output must not be used as the sole or primary basis for navigation, collision avoidance, distress response, search-and-rescue coordination, or any decision where human safety, vessel safety, or aviation safety may be affected.
Data feeds may be delayed, cached, incomplete, geographically imprecise, or absent due to upstream collection constraints, network conditions, or collector failures. Freshness indicators are advisory only. Geometry extraction, rule outputs, and hypothesis overlays are derived products of automated processes and must be treated as starting points for further investigation, not as authoritative or verified determinations.
AIS is self-reported and spoofable. Regions including the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Black Sea, and Eastern Mediterranean operate with elevated AIS confidence risk. VIIRS detection coverage depends on satellite pass timing and cloud conditions. No source family on this platform provides comprehensive or authoritative maritime situational awareness.
Disclaimer
All data provided by this platform is offered "as is" and "as available", without any warranties of any kind, whether express or implied.
No guarantees are made regarding the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the data.
Users are solely responsible for independently verifying any information before relying on it for operational, navigational, legal, or commercial purposes.
Data acknowledgements
Third-party source credits, acknowledgements, and reference notes are maintained in the public documentation repository at github.com/tg12/phantomtide. The dashboard keeps the operator surface minimal and defers detailed attribution lists to that public documentation index.
Ownership and licensing
Phantom Tide is proprietary software. All code, interface design, data schemas, rule definitions, and project materials are owned by James Sawyer / JS Labs and protected by copyright and applicable intellectual-property law. Permitted use is limited to personal research, evaluation, and expressly authorised internal work. Commercial use, redistribution, white-labeling, and managed-service operation require prior written permission.