Observatory
NewsPlanetAI's primary sensors — instruments trained on the world, each with its lens published. Not a restatement of the wire: first-order observation, pulled directly from satellite pixels and calibrated against its own measured error.
Bab-el-Mandeb
observingLarge-vessel (>=200 m) hull presence in the strait, counted at one instant per pass, from Sentinel-2 optical imagery.
Latest pass 2026-08-09: 1≥200 m — near the series median.
Strait of Hormuz
observingLarge-vessel (>=150 m) hull presence in the strait, counted at one instant per pass, from Sentinel-2 optical imagery.
Latest pass 2026-08-10: 55≥150 m — below the series median.
Kerch Strait
observingVessel (>=100 m) presence across the four-zone Kerch corridor, from Sentinel-1 radar imagery.
Latest pass 2026-08-05: ≥11≥100 m — a floor — direction vs the median not established.Banded pass: radar interference can hide ships, never invent them, so this count is a floor; median over clean (unbanded) dates only.
Snapshots
Curated, event-dated observations from open satellite data — not the systematic instrument records above. All snapshots →
A vessel burns north-east of Kumzar, and is out two days later: Strait of Hormuz, August 2026
Strait of Hormuz, about 9 nautical miles north-east of Kumzar, on the Iranian side of the strait
Jazan: two fires ignite 40 km apart, and burn out — July 2026
Jazan Economic City refinery complex, Saudi Red Sea coast — with a second site, a coastal fuel-distribution facility, 40 km south near Jizan city
Kerch Strait: a full anchorage, then empty water — June–July 2026
Kerch Strait — the Azov–Black Sea passage between Crimea and the Taman Peninsula; all Rostov, Taganrog, Yeysk and Temryuk traffic transits one navigable bridge span
Tanker burning south of Larak Island, Strait of Hormuz
Strait of Hormuz, about 6 nautical miles south of Larak Island
Strike plume at the Subiya power and desalination plant, Kuwait
Subiya power and desalination plant, northern Kuwait Bay
Ras al Muajjiz crude terminal, Yanbu: berth occupancy shifts from intermittent to near-continuous
Ras al Muajjiz crude terminal (Petroline terminus), near Yanbu, Saudi Arabia
Tanker activity at the Kuh-e Mobarak SPM field, Jask export terminal
Kuh-e Mobarak, Hormozgan Province, Iran — Gulf of Oman coast, ~65 km west of Jask