WorldViewStream is a site of live webcams from around the world. Its News section reports what those cameras can show as it happens - the northern lights, snow and storms, volcanic eruptions, rocket launches, events in the night sky. This page explains how those stories are made and how we correct them.

What we publish

We write about events that a reader can see, or soon see, on a live camera: a geomagnetic storm that brings the aurora south, a snowfall across a country's mountains, an official weather warning over a city with our cameras, an eruption near a volcano camera, a launch from a pad our cameras look at. We do not publish rumours, opinion presented as news, or stories we cannot tie to a source.

Where the facts come from

Every story is based on data published by the organisations that measure these events, and names them: among others NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (aurora and geomagnetic activity), the U.S. Geological Survey and its volcano observatories, the Tokyo Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, MET Norway, the U.S. National Weather Service, the national weather services publishing through EUMETNET MeteoAlarm, and Launch Library 2 for rocket launches. Official warnings are shown as issued, with the issuing service and the time of issue. Facts about a place come from our own articles about it.

What our cameras show is part of the story: before a story is written we look at the live picture, and a story that the picture does not support - snow reported where the camera shows a wet street - is not published.

How a story is written and checked

We use software to watch these data sources and to prepare a first draft from them. No draft is published automatically: an editor reads every story, checks it against its sources and the cameras, rewrites what needs rewriting and only then publishes it. The numbers shown beside a story - the Kp index, temperatures, alert levels - are taken directly from the source data.

Corrections

If a story contains a mistake, we correct it as soon as we learn of it. A correction that changes the meaning of a story is noted at the end of it, with the date of the change. To report a mistake, use our contact form and tell us which page it is on and what is wrong.

Independence

WorldViewStream is run by Alexander and Elina, who started it as a travel blog. Advertising on the site has no influence on what we write about, and we do not publish paid stories.