This Christmas season marks seven decades of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) tracking Santa Claus on radar as he flies his reindeer-powered sleigh around the globe.
NORAD protects the skies over North America year-round, but during the holiday season the command applies many of those same capabilities to its annual Santa-tracking mission.
The effort begins each November, when NORADSanta.org starts receiving inquiries from families. About 50 national and local contributors help set up the website, mobile apps, and phone lines. On Christmas Eve, about 1,000 uniformed personnel, Pentagon civilians, their families, and supporters volunteer to answer questions about Santa’s whereabouts.
The operation relies on NORAD’s North Warning System, a network of 49 radar installations across Alaska and northern Canada. Once the system detects Santa’s departure from the North Pole, NORAD tracks him using infrared sensors from globally integrated satellites.
Those sensors typically detect heat from launched rockets or missiles, but they also pick up the infrared signature from Rudolph’s glowing nose, which officials say, “gives off an infrared signature similar to that of a missile.”
NORAD uses U.S. Air Force F-15, F-16 and F-22 aircraft as well, along with Canadian Air Force CF-18 fighter jets, to track Santa’s journey. Officials are also sprinkling in a bit of artificial intelligence services to help track Santa’s route.
The annual mission is now routine, but it began by accident.
In 1955, personnel at the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado were working a typical night shift when Air Force Col. Harry Shoup received a call from a child in Colorado Springs. The boy had tried to call Santa using a phone number from a local newspaper advertisement, but the number had been printed incorrectly and routed the call to the operations center.
Rather than dismiss the call, Shoup spoke with the child and continued answering similar calls throughout the night as others dialed the same number. The impromptu effort became a tradition.
Today, children can follow Santa through social media, a mobile app, and the NORADSanta.org website, which includes a countdown clock, games, and videos available in several languages. The call center opens at 6 a.m. EST on Dec. 24. Children can call 877-Hi-NORAD (877-446-6723).
Officials caution that Santa only comes if children are asleep, “so make sure they get into bed early, so he doesn’t miss your house.”