PROVENANCE & ATTRIBUTION
SkyView Data Sources
SkyView combines original field artifacts with information from outside providers. This inventory describes what we use, where it comes from, and how it is retrieved. External content remains subject to its original provider's terms. SkyView original photographs are separately copyrighted.
Source descriptions are published for transparency, not as a certification of commercial-use or redistribution rights. Unreviewed licenses are identified below.
24 documented or discovered sources.
| Source | Data used | How we obtain it | License / review |
|---|---|---|---|
| AviationWeather.gov | AviationWeather.gov METARs and aviation advisories used by the unified SkyView Field map/weather backend. (sigmet, g_airmet, aviation_weather, hazards) | METARs are queried server-side in a bounded area around the visitor-selected map point and rendered as clickable station dots. | U.S. government aviation weather information; see AviationWeather.gov source terms Usage rights not yet verified |
| CelesTrak | VISUAL TLE orbital elements and SATCAT catalog metadata used for the visitor-location satellite view. (satellites, tle, satcat, orbital_elements) | SkyView caches VISUAL TLE and SATCAT data on the Web host and refreshes them on bounded age intervals. | See CelesTrak terms and source attribution Usage rights not yet verified · Signed-in access only |
| Esri World Imagery | Satellite and aerial imagery used as an optional SkyView Field Map basemap. (basemap, satellite_imagery) | Proxied raster tile requests from the SkyView server; available only to signed-in users. | Esri World Imagery service and image contributor terms; commercial use and proxy caching must be verified. Usage rights not yet verified · Signed-in access only |
| FCC Antenna Structure Registration | FCC public Antenna Structure Registration coordinates and structure metadata used by the Field Explorer tower layer. (antenna_structures, towers, fcc) | A weekly SkyView server job downloads the FCC complete ASR archive, normalizes coordinate records and stores them in PostGIS. | FCC public data; see FCC public access terms Usage rights not yet verified |
| FCC Universal Licensing System | FCC ULS transmitter-site locations, call signs, radio service codes and assigned frequencies used by the Field Explorer. (transmitters, frequencies, licenses, fcc) | A weekly SkyView server job imports public LO/HD/FR records from selected complete-license groups including microwave, paging and cellular. | FCC public data; see FCC public access terms Usage rights not yet verified |
| Iowa Environmental Mesonet Data Collection Platform (DCP) Stations | Public station locations and live SHEF observations shown in SkyView's existing Environmental Field Map. (environmental_stations, station_observations) | SkyView imports state DCP station catalogs; the Field endpoint fetches last_shef readings when a station is selected. Station identities are reconciled with NOAA only where authoritative identifiers agree. | Iowa Environmental Mesonet public service; dataset licensing and reuse terms require review. Usage rights not yet verified |
| Iowa Environmental Mesonet NEXRAD Mosaic Archive | Current and archived CONUS NEXRAD N0Q base-reflectivity mosaics used by the SkyView Field radar layer. (radar, nexrad, historical_weather, map_tiles) | The browser requests IEM timestamped TMS layers directly. Live uses ridge::USCOMP-N0Q-0 and historical frames use ridge::USCOMP-N0Q-YYYYMMDDHHMI at five-minute UTC intervals. | Provided by the Iowa Environmental Mesonet at Iowa State University; see IEM source documentation and terms. Usage rights not yet verified |
| NASA Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) | Web Mercator GOES-East/GOES-West GeoColor imagery used as the unified Field weather-satellite overlay. (satellite_imagery, goes, map_tiles) | MapLibre requests georeferenced raster imagery directly from NASA GIBS; SkyView selects East versus West from the visitor-selected longitude. | NASA Earthdata/GIBS public service; underlying GOES imagery is NOAA/NESDIS Usage rights not yet verified |
| NOAA / National Weather Service | NOAA/NWS current conditions and MRMS radar data used by SkyView, including the unified Field radar overlay. (current_weather, forecast, hourly_forecast, weather_alerts, radar) | Field map radar loads the NOAA/NWS MRMS base-reflectivity ArcGIS map service directly; detailed point weather uses the shared server-side API governor. | U.S. government public information; see NOAA/NWS terms and source metadata Usage rights not yet verified |
| NOAA / NESDIS GOES STAR | GOES GeoColor and Band 13 infrared imagery selected for the SkyView Field Weather location. (satellite_imagery, weather_imagery) | SkyView selects a NOAA STAR satellite/sector from the visitor coordinate and presents NOAA-hosted imagery with attribution. | U.S. government public information; see NOAA/NESDIS source metadata Usage rights not yet verified |
| NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Reference Network | Official USCRN station metadata and hourly temperature, precipitation, relative humidity and solar radiation observations for SkyView's Environmental Field Map. (environmental_stations, station_observations, historical_weather) | Independent Admin-controlled station and hourly observation synchronization. Stations come from stations.tsv; hourly deltas from hourly02/updates. Values, timestamps and WBAN provenance are stored in existing environmental tables, with authoritative cross-provider marker deduplication. Disabled until read-only preflight passes. | NOAA NCEI public climate data; verify source-specific attribution and usage guidance. Usage rights not yet verified |
| Open-Meteo | Historical hourly weather and timezone context for the public artifact location. (historical_weather, timezone) | Hourly historical/archive or historical forecast API; SkyView requests Fahrenheit, mph, and inches and preserves grid coordinates/time. | See provider terms and dataset attribution at Open-Meteo Usage rights not yet verified |
| OpenStreetMap | Base geographic feature and map-source dataset used for named places and feature provenance. (places, boundaries, roads, trails, natural_features) | Indirectly through Nominatim and Overpass endpoints; source element IDs are preserved. | Open Database License (ODbL) Usage rights not yet verified |
| OpenStreetMap Nominatim | Reverse geocoding and place hierarchy lookup from artifact coordinates. (reverse_geocoding, places, boundaries) | HTTP API at enrichment time; response/source identifiers are persisted and cached. | OpenStreetMap data under ODbL Usage rights not yet verified |
| OpenStreetMap Overpass API | Nearby geographic features and source geometries used by the Place Resolver. (places, boundaries, nearby_features) | HTTP query around artifact coordinates; OSM node/way/relation IDs and geometry are preserved. | OpenStreetMap data under ODbL Usage rights not yet verified |
| Original Artifact EXIF / Embedded Metadata | Metadata read directly from the immutable original file with ExifTool during ingest. (capture_time, gps, elevation, camera_direction, camera_metadata) | Read locally from the original artifact. Direction uses GPSImgDirection/ImageDirection when the camera recorded it; SkyView does not infer a bearing when that field is absent. | Original artifact metadata Usage rights not yet verified |
| Skyfield | Local deterministic orbital/topocentric calculation engine used to compute satellite elevation, azimuth, range, subpoint and passes from CelesTrak elements. (satellite_position, pass_prediction, astronomy) | Calculated locally on the SkyView Web host from visitor coordinates and cached CelesTrak data. | Skyfield open-source software; orbital source attribution remains CelesTrak Usage rights not yet verified · Signed-in access only |
| SkyView Astronomy Engine | Deterministic local calculation of solar elevation, azimuth, daylight and twilight state from timestamp and public coordinates. (solar_position, twilight, time_of_day) | Calculated locally by SkyView; no external request. | Internal calculation Usage rights not yet verified |
| SkyView Context Description Engine | Deterministic generator that converts stored provenance/context facts into public titles, captions and descriptions without inventing facts. (auto_description, auto_caption, auto_title) | Calculated locally after Place, weather and temporal enrichment. | Internal calculation Usage rights not yet verified |
| SkyView Internal Resolver | Internal SkyView-derived records, manual selections, and context links that do not originate from an external provider. (places, manual_context, derived_context) | Calculated or selected locally; the underlying external source is preserved separately when one exists. | Internal calculation Usage rights not yet verified |
| U.S. Geological Survey — The National Map / 3DEP | Artifact-coordinate enrichment from USGS 3DEP Elevation Point Query Service and The National Map ArcGIS services. SkyView persists provider responses and creates an Artifact tag for every scalar value returned by successful queries. (ground_elevation, geographic_names, boundaries, transportation, structures, hydrography, terrain_context) | HTTP API at enrichment time. 3DEP EPQS is queried at the exact artifact point; GNIS, governmental units, transportation, structures and hydrography are queried from The National Map services with dataset-specific radii. Provider URLs, source identifiers and raw feature payloads are preserved in artifact_context and artifact_enrichment_log. | USGS/The National Map public data; see dataset-specific source metadata Usage rights not yet verified |
| USGS Annual National Land Cover Database | 30-meter national land-cover classification used to characterize vegetation and surface-cover context at an artifact coordinate. (land_cover, vegetation) | ArcGIS ImageServer identify query at the artifact coordinate. The returned class is mapped to its NLCD class name and promoted to a reusable land-cover or vegetation concept tag. | USGS public data; see NLCD dataset metadata Usage rights not yet verified |
| USGS Mineral Resource Data System | Mineral-resource occurrence records used both for artifact enrichment and the visitor-location Field Explorer mines/minerals layer. (mines, prospects, mineral_occurrences, commodities) | Artifact enrichment searches near artifact coordinates. Field Explorer performs bounded viewport queries to the USGS MRDS FeatureServer; provider attributes and source attribution are presented without implying access or collection rights. | USGS public data; see MRDS metadata Usage rights not yet verified |
| USGS National Geologic Map Database — National Geology | National surface-geology map units used to associate artifact coordinates with geologic units, rock/lithology terminology, and related source-backed concepts. (geology, rock_units, lithology, surface_geology) | Point-intersection query at artifact coordinates. Scalar attributes are retained as artifact context; selected geologic unit/lithology/rock values are promoted to reusable semantic tags. | USGS public data; see source dataset metadata Usage rights not yet verified |
This catalogue is generated from the versioned SkyView data-source inventory and newly discovered worker declarations. New sources require licensing review before approval.