NORAD readies for Santa surveillance

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.af.mil/news/n20001213_1834.shtml

[Ok, This one has been collecting dust here for about a week, But I
was wondering if I could get one of my Christmas wishes early?
To the various defacers on ISN mailing list, Could we have a hoilday
season without any .gov & .mil defacements?  I'd really love to have
my Attrition Alpha-list pager quiet at least until after New Years,
Ideally longer :)  - WK]


by Master Sgt. Larry Lincoln
North American Aerospace Defense Command
12/13/00

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AFPN) -- It's beginning to look a lot
like Christmas -- especially at North American Aerospace Command.

NORAD is preparing to launch its 46th "NORAD Tracks Santa" program.
This year's version will again feature a six-language live-tracking
Web site designed to bring a touch of the season to eager Santa
watchers around the globe.

The site features visual and audio updates hourly from midnight EST,
Dec. 23 to 5 a.m. EST, Dec. 25, said Maj. Jamie Robertson, deputy
director, NORAD Public Affairs.

"We'll simply pick up the information as soon as Santa's sleigh
launches from the North Pole," Robertson said. "Even before we pick up
Santa on radar or via visual identification, we'll be able to detect
the infrared glare from the tip of Rudolph's nose. It's the same
technology we use to track missiles," he added.

NORAD will track the jolly old elf using digital animation,
satellite/cockpit images and audio reports from the NORAD command
center located in Cheyenne Mountain.

NORAD is a binational United States/Canadian organization charged with
maintaining aerospace warning and aerospace control for North America.

The Santa tracking tradition started in 1955, by accident, thanks to a
local newspaper ad for a department store's 'Santa Hotline.'

The ad included a special phone number that turned out to be the
operations hotline to Continental Air Defense Command (NORAD's
predecessor). When the phones started to ring, military operators were
surprised to hear children asking to speak to Santa.

Col. Harry Shoup, senior officer on duty at the time, took the first
call and quickly figured out what had happened. Shoup told the
youngster he was helping Santa and added that he could see Saint Nick
on the radar screen: He was heading south from the North Pole. "It was
the height of the Cold War, and the only people who had that
particular phone number was the CONAD commander-in-chief and me,"
Shoup said. "If that phone ever rang, it usually wasn't good news.

"I was surprised when it rang, but even more so when I picked it up
and heard a child on the other end reading a Christmas list to me,"
Shoup said.

Halfway through the call, the now-suspicious youngster said to Shoup,
"Hey, you're not Santa," to which the quick-thinking colonel replied,
"Ho, Ho, Ho... I'm one of his helpers son. Now you be a good little
boy and get right to bed."

Shoup remembers that as soon as he hung up, the phone immediately rang
with another Santa-seeker on the line. Shoup and his fellow
crewmembers spent the rest of the evening answering a non-stop barrage
of calls from children wanting to talk to Santa.

Local media caught wind of the calls and reported the story. The next
year, calls again flooded CONAD from children who wanted to know where
Santa was. By 1957, NORAD was in the Santa-tracking business.

Since then, the program has gradually expanded, and today is the
recipient of 43 international awards. The Web site made its internet
debut in 1997 and scored approximately one million hits. In 1999, the
site took 52 million hits on Christmas Eve alone, peaking at 250,000
hits per minute.

This year's site will be hosted by America Online, the world's leading
Internet online service, and is supported again by Analytical
Graphics, the company responsible for technical support and all
associated imagery.

"AGI donates its services to participate on the NORAD Tracks Santa
project because we feel it is a perfect fit for our Satellite Tool
Kit," said Bob Hall, AGI video production services director.

"STK is the best tool to use to be able to track Santa as he flies
around the world," he added. "We can even integrate some of NORAD's
satellite systems when Santa is near the ground to better enable NORAD
to follow him. Given that fit, it was a natural extension to help
NORAD create the web site."

The project has grown to the point that AGI now dedicates a few months
each year working to produce the entire web site, including the
'imagery' for Dec. 24-25, Hall said.

All site material, including the live tracking event, will be
available in English, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian and Brazilian
Portuguese.

In addition, Globelink Services International, a Colorado Springs,
Colo.-based company, coordinated the extensive translation required
for the Web site.

According to Robertson, the organizations and volunteers who help make
this global Christmas project possible, do so at no cost to the
taxpayer.

The 2000 NORAD Tracks Santa site will debut December 15. To view the
site, go to www.noradsanta.org.

To reach the Santa hotline call 719-474-3980 after 4 p.m. Dec. 24.

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