Replays / Strikes on Iran, Feb 2026
US and Israeli strikes on Iran, 28 February 2026
36 hours around Operation Epic Fury, rebuilt from public data and played back on the globe: the tankers, radar and surveillance planes that broadcast their position, airliners leaving the sky, GPS jamming spreading, conflict news as it was reported, and the levels this map would have shown. Strike aircraft fly dark and do not appear.
What the map saw
T−12.3 hIsrael, Lebanon and Syria: Unusual. 24-hour buildup 13.3 h (normal 5.0 h).
T−12.2 hIsrael, Lebanon and Syria: High. 24-hour buildup 13.3 h (normal 5.0 h), conflict news events 26 (normal 12).
T+0.0 hThe US and Israeli strikes on Iran begin, at 1:15 a.m. US Eastern time according to US Central Command. Source.
T+0.0 h10 Earth-observation, radar and military satellites in the public catalogue were over the box at that moment: SKYSAT-C5, SENTINEL-3A, CBERS 4, GAOFEN-1, LEGION 3, CARTOSAT-2E, CAS500-1, IONOSFERA-M 1, PRAETORIAN SDA_609, GAOFEN-1 03.
T+1.3 hIran and the Gulf: Unusual. conflict news events 39 (normal 9), airliners turning back 3 (normal 1), tanker aircraft 1 (normal 0).
T+2.1 hIran and the Gulf: High. conflict news events 92 (normal 7).
T+3.1 hIsrael, Lebanon and Syria: Extreme. conflict news events 107 (normal 12), civil air traffic 5 (normal 28), 24-hour buildup 12.8 h (normal 6.0 h).
T+4.8 hIran and the Gulf: Extreme. conflict news events 160 (normal 8), civil air traffic 0 (normal 70).
Click a time to jump the replay there. Levels are computed exactly as on the live map, from the same signals; see how the levels work.
What you are looking at
- Aircraft. Every aircraft that broadcast its position to the adsb.lol network inside the box. Military aircraft are coloured by role and leave a 40-minute trail, so refuelling orbits show as rings.
- GPS jamming. A map cell turns red when at least a tenth of the aircraft in it reported poor position accuracy in a 15-minute window.
- Airspace. A country fills red as the number of aircraft airborne over it falls against the same 15 minutes a day earlier; from a 50% drop its name and the drop show on the map.
- Orbits. A ring marks a military aircraft flying a racetrack or orbit, with how long it stayed on it.
- Day and night. The shadow moves with the replay clock; the lights on the night side are NASA's Black Marble.
- Conflict news. Assaults, fighting and mass violence located by the GDELT news monitor, one pin per place per 15 minutes, sized by the number of reports.
- Satellites. Earth-observation, radar and military satellites from the public catalogue, placed with their orbital elements from the time. Only satellites whose orbits are published appear.
Aircraft data © adsb.lol contributors, ODbL 1.0 · conflict events The GDELT Project · satellite orbits USSPACECOM via Space-Track.org, positions computed with SGP4, catalogue CelesTrak · imagery NASA GIBS (Blue Marble, Black Marble, VIIRS). A replay shows what public sensors saw, not what happened on the ground.