What am I flying over right now?
SkyDot names what is below your window as you pass it: the nearest city, the country, or the sea. It reads a gazetteer stored on your phone, so both halves stay local. The position comes from GPS satellites and the place names from data bundled in the app.
The gazetteer is on the device
Naming a place from a coordinate normally means asking a geocoding server, which is unavailable at altitude. SkyDot ships the lookup table instead, so the answer is computed on your phone in the time it takes to read the GPS fix.
- Towns and cities
- 69,305
- Airports
- 4,045
What it tells you
The nearest named place and the country you are over, with your coordinates and the accuracy of the current fix. Over water it names the sea rather than reaching for the nearest land.
Every country you pass over is also recorded, which is what fills in the world map and the countries count in your travel log.
Questions
How can an app know what I am flying over with no signal?
Two local pieces: GPS gives the coordinate without any network, and a gazetteer bundled in the app converts that coordinate to a place name. Neither step needs a connection.
Does it identify landmarks and mountains?
It names the nearest town or city, the country, and seas. It is a gazetteer lookup rather than a landmark or terrain database.
Does it work over the ocean?
Yes. GPS coverage is global, and the map draws from the region pack you downloaded, so mid-ocean is where the difference from a connected tracker is most obvious.