EARTH · MOTION CLIPS
Make a Clip of a Live Map in Motion
Some things only make sense moving. Watch a whole day sweep across the Earth as the planet turns beneath the Sun, or the International Space Station trace one lap of its orbit— then, with one tap, save the animation as a GIF you can post anywhere. It renders right here in your browser, from live and sourced data, and the LiveEarthViewer mark travels with every share.
How it works
A day sweeping across the world, or the ISS orbit. Each loop is built from real data — the Sun’s position, the Station’s published orbit — not a canned animation.
The clip plays on a loop so you can see the motion. It’s a rendering — a clean schematic of the world — not a live camera feed, and it says so on the frame.
Export a looping GIF that plays everywhere, or grab a single frame as a PNG. Both carry the wordmark and the address, so wherever the clip lands, it points home.
Curious how a moving map gets turned into a file you can post, and what the clips do and don’t show? A short guide walks through it:
See these live
Each clip has a live counterpart on the map — the real thing, moving right now:
About these clips
Every clip is a renderingbuilt from real, free, sourced data — not a live video feed, and the frame says so. The day/night sweep is computed from the Sun’s sub-solar point using astronomy checked against JPL Horizons to about a kilometre. The ISS orbit is propagated with SGP4 from CelesTrak two-line elements; when the live elements can’t be reached it falls back to a clearly-labelled recent orbit rather than a fabricated path. Nothing is uploaded — the GIF is assembled on your own device. Sources: Sun position: JPL Horizons (DE441)-checked astronomy · Orbit: CelesTrak two-line elements (SGP4).
2 scenes to start, with room for more as the library grows.