UK SIGNAL · RESEARCH AND PILOT PREPARATION · 11 OCTOBER 2026

Useful signals, with the limits visible.

24 starting APIs compared for a UK-first public-interest intelligence map. The selected pilot focuses on Cornwall coastal activity and a small set of reliable UK feeds. Novel sources remain valuable research candidates where accounts, licences or coverage need resolving.

Open UK Signal map ↗

Publicly reachable is not the same as production-ready. OpenSky operational use requires a prior written agreement. Global Fishing Watch is noncommercial, with a token. SSLMate anonymous queries are personal/evaluation; production needs an account/key. RIPEstat, RIPE Atlas, urlscan and IODA have reuse restrictions or unresolved rights. Safecast Cornwall readings returned by the test are historical, not live.

Checks were one-off read-only queries and documentation reads. No provider contacts, accounts, paid access, new public scans or recurring monitoring were activated. An empty response is not evidence that nothing happened.

The ten most interesting sources

Ranked judgment: distinctive insight and relevance to this theme, rather than quickest integration. Setup barriers and source rights are part of the ranking.

01IODA

Three independent connectivity views can distinguish a regional disruption from a single website failure. Reuse rights remain unresolved; begin with official links.

02Global Fishing Watch

Fishing effort, encounters and AIS-gap context are unusually informative around Cornwall. Historical and inferred; token and noncommercial terms are essential.

03Copernicus Data Space catalogue APIs

Makes land/coastal change investigations reproducible. Anonymous scene discovery worked; actual imagery access, cloud filtering and comparisons need a separate workflow.

04NASA FIRMS

Broad thermal-anomaly coverage adds a useful environmental trigger. Requires a free key, and must not be used as a life/property-preservation alert.

05OONI

Volunteer tests reveal access/interference anomalies beyond conventional uptime checks. Corroboration and CC BY-NC-SA conditions are essential.

06SSLMate Certificate Transparency Search

New certificates and hostnames make a quiet business-website change watch possible. Production account/key required even for the $0 plan.

07SatNOGS DB

A rare, openly licensed catalogue of spacecraft and radio transmitters. Good contextual space layer; catalogue records are not live satellite positions.

08Planning Data

Adds actionable Cornwall land constraints, heritage and brownfield context. Coverage gaps never establish absence of constraints or ownership.

09Safecast

Distinctive historical radiation-survey context with CC0 reuse. Penzance results are from 2018; current Cornwall sensors were not returned.

10GDACS

Brings global disaster metadata and modelled impact into a world view. Useful triage with explicit uncertainty and links to national warnings.

Verified comparison of the 24 starting APIs

Costs, quotas and observation freshness are stated only where verified. “Not verified” is an open condition, not an invented unlimited or free tier. Expand a row for limits, licence, tests and official sources.

24 sources
SourceWhat it reveals and why it mattersAccess and costCoverage and freshnessRead-only verification
IODAInternet
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
Filter by country/ASN and time; paginate and limit results. Numeric API quota not found. Website CSV download has a 90-day maximum window.
Licensing and operational restrictions
No affirmative data reuse licence verified. Live response copyright states 2021–2025 Georgia Tech Research Corporation, All Rights Reserved. Repository software licences do not establish data rights.
Limitations
Detected signals do not identify cause. Empty GB result is query-specific, not proof of normal connectivity. Public site should link to IODA until redistribution is clarified.
Macroscopic Internet outage signals and events using routing, active probing and network telescope observations.

High: UK country, regional and network connectivity context.

Official HTTP API v2 documents GETs. Anonymous GB event request succeeded; no account or key used.

Cost: No API price or paid access requirement found in reviewed docs; do not infer a guaranteed free service.

Global country, region and ASN aggregation; supports GB. Sparse signals and detection thresholds limit smaller outages.

Freshness: Docs: BGP calculated every five minutes; roughly 4.2 million IPv4 /24 blocks probed at least every ten minutes; Google signals about 2–3 hours behind.

TESTED QUERY

Read-only GET HTTP 200; error=null; data=[]; default extendWindow=1209600 seconds. API documentation GET also HTTP 200. No scan initiated.

2026-10-11T18:38:37.003676+00:00
OONIInternet
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
API rate limiting applies; no verified numeric quota. API unsuitable for tens of thousands of measurements or many GB. Use bulk S3 for large analysis.
Licensing and operational restrictions
OONI data licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; attribution, noncommercial and share-alike conditions. Commercial site use requires different permission.
Limitations
Anomaly is not confirmed censorship or attributed intent; technical failures and sampling require corroboration. Use aggregate noncommercial displays and measurement links; avoid exposing sensitive raw URLs.
Volunteer network tests of website accessibility, censorship indicators and interference.

High: UK access anomalies with measurement evidence and country/network filters.

Explorer, public API and unsigned S3 data. Anonymous country-filtered API GET succeeded.

Cost: Docs explicitly say S3 open-data access is free with unsigned requests. No separate public API fee stated.

Volunteer measurements worldwide, including GB; sampling varies by network, location, test and input URL.

Freshness: Fastpath makes measurements available immediately; S3 batches hourly. Test returned a GB measurement beginning 2026-10-11T18:38:01Z.

TESTED QUERY

Read-only GET HTTP 200 JSON; one result. x-ratelimit-remaining=3874 observed without quota-window guarantee.

2026-10-11T18:38:04.948024+00:00
RIPE AtlasInternet
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
Read endpoints rate limited; numeric requests quota unspecified. HTTP 429 requires backoff. Page size maximum 500; cache, avoid tight polling; streaming available.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Current terms version 3.5, effective 4 November 2025: responsible research/network use; any commercial RIPE Atlas data use requires prior RIPE NCC permission. No unrestricted open-data licence established.
Limitations
Reported probe coordinates randomly offset 80–400 metres. Public data may contain IP addresses; do not map to households. Prefer official result links until intended public reuse terms assessed.
Public distributed ping, DNS, traceroute and other network measurement results and probe metadata.

High: UK latency, routing and reachability evidence from existing measurements.

Public reads documented anonymous. Nonpublic objects require owner credentials. Creating measurements requires account/key and credits; not tested or activated.

Cost: No public-read fee documented. New measurements consume credits; no currency cost verified.

Worldwide probes and anchors including GB; volunteer placement is not representative coverage.

Freshness: Per-measurement interval and availability; REST latest and streaming are supported. Probe GET did not test result latency.

TESTED QUERY

Read-only GET HTTP 200 JSON; count/next/previous/results structure with one GB probe. No measurement created.

2026-10-11T18:38:04.948206+00:00
RIPEstatInternet
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
Maximum eight concurrent requests per IP. Register if regularly exceeding 1,000 requests/day. Cache; inspect endpoint status and freshness.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Service terms Article 3.3 prohibit repackaging, compiling or redistributing RIPEstat data; commercial derivatives need written permission. Research publication requires source attribution and notification of results. Underlying third-party conditions also apply.
Limitations
Country allocation is not exact physical location. Use official links/provided widget embedding until public data reuse is resolved. Do not equate successful GET with redistribution permission.
IP/ASN registration, routing visibility and histories, country resources and network metadata.

High: UK network context; useful for cross-checking connectivity events.

Public JSON Data API; anonymous GET succeeded. Supports sourceapp identification and official embeddable widgets.

Cost: No public API price stated in reviewed documentation.

Global network resources with GB country queries; endpoint-specific methodology and third-party coverage.

Freshness: Varies by endpoint and cache. Test query_endtime/latest_time=2026-10-11T16:00Z; returned default weekly history latest stats_date=2026-10-05.

TESTED QUERY

Read-only GET HTTP 200; API status=ok, cached=true, resource=GB. Initial country-resource-list GET HTTP 200 but 200KB local preview cap truncated parsing; followed with complete stats response.

2026-10-11T18:38:37.495991+00:00
SSLMate Certificate Transparency SearchInternet
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
Small: 100 hostname or 10 full-domain queries/hour; 75/minute, 5/second; 15-second timeout. May reduce during high load. Paginate after IDs and honour Retry-After.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Public CT entries do not establish an unrestricted SSLMate service/database redistribution licence; no affirmative open reuse licence verified.
Limitations
Anonymous success is evaluation only. No production key-free integration; include documentation link and connection-needed state. Certificate issue or new hostname does not establish a live service or threat.
Certificate issuance events indexed by domain, SAN names, issuer and validity.

Medium: public domain certificate changes; useful administrative context, not maliciousness evidence.

Limited anonymous domain queries only for personal/evaluation. Production documentation asks for account plus API key. Firehose needs subscription.

Cost: Published Small plan $0/month; Medium $50/month; firehose $1,000/month. USD. No account created.

Public trusted SSL certificates in monitored CT logs; domain-scoped query returns unexpired issuances. Not all certificates/private PKI.

Freshness: New issuances available after discovery; no guaranteed latency verified. not_before may be pre/post-dated and is not exact discovery time.

TESTED QUERY

Read-only evaluation GET HTTP 200 JSON array, 13 issuances; X-Ratelimit-Limit=100 and remaining=99 observed. No monitoring activated.

2026-10-11T18:38:05.150548+00:00
urlscan.io SearchInternet
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
Per minute/hour/day and concurrent quotas; inspect headers; respect 429/backoff. Search counts exact to 10,000; use search_after. Older 2021 doc says anonymous max 100 results, current account limits may differ.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Terms restrict redistribution/public display and commercial use without permission; third-party scan artifacts retain their owners' rights. No blanket open-data licence.
Limitations
Only historical search tested. No submissions/scans. Prefer official search/result links; public API aggregation needs rights assessment. Scan verdicts are indicators, not proof.
Previously submitted public website scan metadata, requests, domains, addresses and certificates.

Medium: historical site infrastructure evidence and changes.

Search existing scans via GET; anonymous minor quota exists despite OpenAPI marking key authentication. Account/key recommended. Some sources and fields require Pro.

Cost: Free and paid tiers documented. Free-tier pricing table lists 1,000 search requests; quota window and current paid currency prices not independently verified. Do not infer anonymous allowance from free-account tier.

Existing public scans worldwide; visible datasets are submission-biased, not exhaustive. Private/unlisted scans restricted.

Freshness: Scan timestamp indicates observation time; searching does not perform a new scan.

TESTED QUERY

Read-only GET HTTP 200 JSON with one existing result. Observed anonymous per-minute search limit=30, remaining=29; concurrency limit=10. These observations are not guaranteed future quotas.

2026-10-11T18:38:05.645015+00:00
SatNOGS DBTransport and space
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
No numeric rate or bulk quota verified in reviewed docs. Use bounded catalogue filters, pagination where schema supports it, and conservative cache.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Official DB about page explicitly CC BY-SA 4.0 for data; attribution and share-alike must be preserved. Software licence is separate.
Limitations
Catalogue presence is not operational signal, UK visibility or live position. Public site can show attributed catalogue context subject to CC BY-SA; use separate orbital data for propagated positions.
Satellite identities, RF transmitters, modes, telemetry artifacts and recent/historical orbital elements.

Medium: public space/radio catalogue context; less direct UK infrastructure utility.

API open to anyone; catalogue GET anonymous succeeded. Certain write/functions require an API key; none tested.

Cost: Docs explicitly freely distributed public API data; no access fee found.

Global crowdsourced satellite/spacecraft and RF catalogue; volunteer-contributed completeness varies.

Freshness: Record/element timestamp specific; no guaranteed update cadence or SLA verified. Sample catalogue GET does not verify latest orbit freshness.

TESTED QUERY

Read-only GET HTTP 200 JSON array; one matching satellite record; no API key and no submissions.

2026-10-11T18:38:05.661927+00:00
CelesTrak GP orbital dataTransport and space
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
Download only needed data, at most once per two-hour GP update. Cache centrally. Some groups enforce second-download 403; repeated errors/excess bandwidth can firewall IP. Stop on 50x.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Reviewed GP docs and usage policy do not specify an affirmative redistribution licence. Free retrieval is not proof of unrestricted database reuse.
Limitations
Orbit propagation is a model, not live observed location; display element epoch and age. No cause/intent inference. Initial public site should use source link pending reuse assessment; no per-browser repeated GP fetching.
Mean orbital elements for public tracked satellites, suitable for modelled tracks and pass calculations.

Medium: educational space context and UK sky-pass estimation.

Public GP GETs without accounts; use CATNR/GROUP and CSV/JSON/OMM formats.

Cost: Official policy describes data as freely available; no account or fee. Donations optional; none made.

Public tracked objects with available GP elements; no complete classified-object coverage. JSON/CSV support larger catalogue identifiers than legacy TLE.

Freshness: CelesTrak checks every two hours; upstream element updates may only occur 2–3 times/day. Tested ISS EPOCH 2026-10-11T04:13:59.875680.

TESTED QUERY

One read-only GET HTTP 200 JSON array; one ISS orbital record. No repeated download, account, scanning or monitoring.

2026-10-11T18:38:05.857285+00:00
NASA FIRMSEnvironment and energy
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
5,000 transactions per 10 minutes; larger requests can consume multiple transactions. Area endpoint accepts a bounding box and 1–5 days per query. Country endpoints currently marked unavailable.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Open NASA data; acknowledge FIRMS and relevant scientific products. API pages do not specify a standalone versioned data licence; follow product citation guidance before redistribution.
Limitations
Anomaly pixels can reflect agriculture, hot smoke or other heat sources. Clouds obscure detections. VIIRS pixels approximately 375 m, MODIS approximately 1 km. FIRMS states data must not be used for preservation of life/property; current S-NPP anomaly notice requires caution.
Satellite active-fire detections and thermal anomalies, including acquisition time, location and sensor attributes.

Priority environmental source for Cornwall wildfire context; useful corroboration of land change, never proof of land ownership or an emergency warning.

Free MAP_KEY issued by email is required for the area API and map services. No key requested or account created.

Cost: MAP_KEY is free; no paid service purchased.

Global MODIS and VIIRS; Landsat API product and faster RT/URT services are US/Canada-specific.

Freshness: Global near-real-time data normally available within three hours of satellite observation; faster US/Canada timing must not be advertised for Cornwall.

DOCUMENTATION ONLY

Documentation verified only; data endpoint not tested because a MAP_KEY is required.

No data call made
NASA EONET v3Environment and energy
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
Supports limit, days, date range, category/source and bbox filters. Bbox order is min longitude, max latitude, max longitude, min latitude. No numerical request-rate guarantee published in inspected pages.
Licensing and operational restrictions
No specific licence stated in inspected API pages; originating layer/source data retain their own terms. Attribute EONET and linked source.
Limitations
NASA says metadata are for visualisation/general information and spatial/temporal extents should not be construed as official. Empty results cannot establish local safety.
Curated natural-event metadata, dated point/polygon geometries, categories and links to originating sources.

Simple key-free global context feed for storms, fires, floods and other events; limited Cornwall specificity.

Public HTTPS GET JSON/GeoJSON endpoints; no credentials used.

Cost: No charge or account requirement stated in v3 documentation.

Global curated events, not comprehensive local incident reporting.

Freshness: Event geometries contain dates; no delivery latency SLA. Open/closed status can approximate an event's actual duration.

TESTED QUERY

Direct read-only GET returned HTTP 200 JSON, events=[] for bounded Cornwall-area query. This validates access, not comprehensive local coverage.

2026-10-11T18:38:08.997410Z
Copernicus Data Space catalogue APIsEnvironment and energy
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
STAC supports bounded search and pagination; inspected quotas include four concurrent immediate-data connections and 12 TB rolling transfer allowance for general users. These are download quotas, not a verified STAC rate limit.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Sentinel Data Legal Notice; use source/year attribution and modified-data notice where applicable. Other collections and portal materials have separate terms.
Limitations
Clouds, revisit intervals, spatial resolution and processing affect change interpretation. Satellite imagery establishes neither ownership nor claimability. STAC model/collections continue evolving.
Satellite scene metadata and references to imagery suitable for comparing vegetation, development, coast and land-cover change.

Strong Cornwall land/environment candidate; metadata discovery is feasible without a key, while actual imagery processing is a separate authenticated workflow.

STAC v1 metadata search worked anonymously. Image assets in tested metadata declare OAuth/S3 authentication; downloads and processing require appropriate account/access.

Cost: Open/free Sentinel data and core service quotas. Larger processing, commercial missions and additional ecosystem services may involve charges; none activated.

Global Sentinel archive including Cornwall; collection-specific spatial/temporal coverage.

Freshness: Mission/acquisition/processing dependent; tested metadata referenced a Sentinel-2 acquisition on 10 October 2026.

TESTED QUERY

Direct read-only GET returned HTTP 200 GeoJSON with one Sentinel-2 L2A scene dated 10 October 2026. Metadata only, 71,905 bytes; no image downloaded.

2026-10-11T18:38:13.507390Z
GDACSEnvironment and energy
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
Up to 100 records per result; pagesize can reduce and pagenumber can paginate. Bulk KML covers only last four days. Cache collections and compare datetime before requesting again. Numerical request-rate limit not stated.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Acknowledge Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System, GDACS; comply with March 2025 terms. No Creative Commons version asserted.
Limitations
Automatic alerts/estimates can contain errors and require confirmation. Terms say they do not replace national/local official warnings or support unconfirmed decisions.
Global disaster notifications and modelled impact estimates, with event geospatial metadata and alert levels.

Useful global hazard context; major-event remit makes it less dependable for small Cornwall flooding or other local incidents.

Public API returning GeoJSON; XML feeds also available. No key needed in tested search.

Cost: Official quick start says GDACS data are free.

Worldwide major sudden-onset disasters potentially requiring international assistance.

Freshness: Near real time; completeness and timeliness expressly not guaranteed.

TESTED QUERY

Direct read-only GET returned HTTP 204, no body, for one-day flood-event query. No record schema verified by this empty response.

2026-10-11T18:38:44.784103Z
Sensor.CommunityEnvironment and energy
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
Filter by area, box, country, sensor or type. No numerical rate limit published in inspected API wiki; use bounded cached reads.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Official website links Database Contents License 1.0, which requires compliance with ODbL. Verify attribution/share-alike obligations for database redistribution.
Limitations
Citizen sensor quality and siting differ from regulatory stations. No returned measurements may mean no active sensor in the window, not good air quality.
Volunteer sensor measurements including particulate matter, temperature, humidity and pressure, depending on sensor type.

Key-free local air/environment context where active sensors exist; initial Penzance-area availability test was empty.

HTTPS GET without credentials. Use data.sensor.community for reading, not the ingestion-focused api.sensor.community. Send identifiable User-Agent.

Cost: Open public data; no fee published in inspected documentation.

Global contributor network; placement and active local sensor coverage vary.

Freshness: V1 endpoint returns measurements from last five minutes. One-minute windows update each minute; 24-hour windows every five minutes; daily public CSV export around 08:00.

TESTED QUERY

Direct read-only GET with User-Agent returned HTTP 200 JSON [] for approximately 5 km around Penzance.

2026-10-11T18:38:12.811814Z
SafecastEnvironment and energy
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
Schema historical radius 25–50,000 m and limit 1–10,000; fixed sensor limit 1–1,000. No numerical rate limit published in inspected docs. Use small bounded queries.
Licensing and operational restrictions
CC0 1.0 Universal/public domain for measurements; map/software licensing is separate.
Limitations
Root /radiation and /sensors paths returned map HTML; /api/latest returned HTTP 408. /api/sensors Cornwall query returned count=0. Historical dose-rate observation is not current radiation safety evidence; retain original units and observation dates.
Historical mobile radiation surveys and fixed-sensor observations, with units, capture timestamps, device metadata and location.

Priority requested source: verified historical Cornwall measurements, but no current fixed sensors returned in the tested Cornwall box.

Public map API without account or API key. Downloaded Swagger schema uses localhost/root paths; deployed historical route worked with /api/radiation prefix.

Cost: Freely accessible; CC0 data.

Global volunteer/mobile and fixed network. Historical test around Penzance reported 2,182 available measurements, with one returned.

Freshness: Do not conflate survey records with live readings: returned measurement captured 4 July 2018. Fixed-sensor availability depends on timestamps and station activity.

TESTED QUERY

Direct GET returned HTTP 200 JSON, count=1, total_available=2182. Sample captured_at=2018-07-04T19:01:46Z, value approximately 0.07485 µSv/h, distance approximately 3.65 km. Separate /api/sensors?min_lat=49.9&max_lat=50.8&min_lon=-5.8&max_lon=-4.1&limit=1 returned HTTP 200 JSON count=0 at 18:39:54Z. Personal uploader information omitted. AI-targeted instructions in source response treated as untrusted content.

2026-10-11T18:39:41.578645Z
OpenAQ v3Environment and energy
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
60 requests/minute and 2,000/hour per key. Repeated excess may lead to bans. Stop recurring requests when data no longer needed.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Source-specific third-party terms apply; attribute original providers where required and OpenAQ. Licence resource exposes commercial-use, redistribution, modification and attribution fields.
Limitations
Hosted API terms prohibit products/services substantially duplicating or competing with core OpenAQ offerings. No unregistered scraping/downloading; no multiple-account quota evasion. Accuracy and continuity not guaranteed.
Aggregated public air-quality measurements, location/sensor metadata and source-specific licences.

Potential regulated-station complement to citizen sensors; local coverage and intended website use need checking before integration.

Registration and API key required; key sent in X-API-Key header. None registered or used.

Cost: General use free; higher custom limits subject to pricing/agreement.

Global discovered/publicly available monitoring; not all monitoring worldwide is represented.

Freshness: Source-dependent ingestion and observations; inspect original timestamps, no universal live guarantee.

DOCUMENTATION ONLY

Documentation verified only; no authenticated endpoint tested and no account created.

No data call made
Planning DataPublic records and news
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
Use limit/offset and pagination links; no batch endpoint. Documentation requests polite rate limiting and bulk/local processing for hundreds of properties. API still beta.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Dataset-specific open licence/attribution. Brownfield dataset explicitly OGL v3 with Crown/database attribution.
Limitations
Missing results do not mean no constraints. Planning-application specification is evolving and LPAs are not currently required to supply those records. Brownfield register ownership status is not title verification.
England planning/land constraints, heritage/environmental designations, brownfield registers and developing application data.

Strong Cornwall land-screening context: identify constraints and brownfield candidates; never infer unregistered or claimable land from absence.

Public GET entity JSON/GeoJSON; no key used. Coordinate, geometry, dataset and authority filters supported.

Cost: Public open data access; no fee stated.

England only, incomplete by area/dataset; verify Cornwall authority/source coverage.

Freshness: Provider and collector dependent. Brownfield page inspected: collector ran 11 October 2026, new data found 2 October 2026; entity dates are not necessarily ingestion dates.

TESTED QUERY

Direct read-only GET returned HTTP 200 JSON, count=0 at selected Penzance point. This proves access only; point absence is not Cornwall-wide absence or title status.

2026-10-11T18:38:12.658924Z
Companies HousePublic records and news
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
600 requests per five minutes; excess gives HTTP 429, repeated bypass/excess can lead to ban.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Developer pages link Crown copyright; confirm public-information reuse policy and third-party rights in filed documents before republication.
Limitations
Public filing assertions, registered office and company status do not prove land ownership, entitlement to land or authenticity of every submitted statement.
Public company register information; company profiles, status, filings and related resources depend on endpoint.

Useful for checking named corporate entities associated with an independently identified site, not identifying parcel ownership from names alone.

Companies House account/application and API authentication required; API key, stream key or OAuth depending on service. None created or used.

Cost: No fee shown in inspected API developer pages; confirm relevant service terms. Paid document/certification services are separate from this research.

UK companies/entities falling within Companies Act; not a land-title register or all business types.

Freshness: Official API overview describes returned register information as live and real-time; reflects submitted/processed register data.

DOCUMENTATION ONLY

Documentation verified only; no authenticated request made and no corporate screening monitor activated.

No data call made
Police DataPublic records and news
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
Average fewer than 15 requests/second, burst 30; leaky-bucket controller and HTTP 429 on excess.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Open Government Licence v3.0.
Limitations
Locations are anonymised, not exact incident coordinates; recording and publication gaps/corrections affect comparison. This is not a live incident feed.
Published street-level crime/outcomes, stop/search and policing/neighbourhood information.

Optional local context rather than core land/environment monitoring; useful only with anonymisation and monthly reporting caveats.

Public JSON API, no key required for tested update endpoint.

Cost: Open data; no API fee stated.

Crime data England, Wales and Northern Ireland; stop/search subset of forces in England/Wales. No Scotland-wide API coverage claim.

Freshness: Monthly publication; tested crime-last-updated returned 2026-08-01 on 11 October 2026.

TESTED QUERY

Web read-only endpoint retrieval returned application/json {date:2026-08-01}. HTTP status not exposed by web tool; no crime records fetched.

2026-10-11
GDELT DOC 2.0Public records and news
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
Documented ArticleList/ImageCollage maxrecords up to 250; default 75. DOC documentation specifies rolling three-month searches and minimum 15-minute timespan. Numerical request-rate guarantee not found.
Licensing and operational restrictions
GDELT permits redistribution with citation/link to project. Original publisher articles and images retain their own rights; result links do not license copying full articles/images.
Limitations
2017 documentation contains historical wording; verify live behaviour before promising history depth. Translation, extraction, duplicates and source bias affect results.
Searchable news article metadata/links and coverage timelines for keywords, themes and source filters.

Public-interest corroboration/discovery around Cornwall environmental events; coverage signals are not independently verified event facts.

Public URL GET JSON/RSS API; no key used.

Cost: GDELT datasets available without fee for academic/commercial/governmental use.

Global monitored news with multilingual machine translation; Cornwall mentions may refer to different places. DOC documentation describes 65 translated languages, distinct from broader GDELT coverage.

Freshness: Near-real-time news discovery; observed/news publication time and actual event time differ. No latency SLA verified.

TESTED QUERY

Direct read-only GET returned HTTP 200 application/json {} (2 bytes). Empty result does not validate article schema or establish no flooding.

2026-10-11T18:38:45.098033Z
Global Fishing WatchTransport and space
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
50,000 requests/day, 1,500,000/month across all user tokens; maximum five tokens.
Licensing and operational restrictions
CC BY-NC 4.0; API noncommercial use only, dataset-specific terms and attribution.
Limitations
Apparent fishing is modelled activity, not proof of fishing or wrongdoing. AIS-off and radar detections do not prove illegal conduct. Not a substitute for live rescue-vessel tracking.
Apparent fishing effort, vessel identity, encounters and AIS-off / radar-detection context.

High novelty for Cornwall coastal history and public-interest fishing analysis.

Account and bearer token required; v3 supported. No account or data request made.

Cost: No API price quoted in reviewed docs; noncommercial eligibility required. Do not assume a commercial licence can be bought.

Global AIS/VMS and satellite-derived datasets; vessel transmission, reception and model coverage vary.

Freshness: Dataset/version dependent, generally historical analysis; no universal real-time delay verified.

DOCUMENTATION ONLY

Documentation only; credentials or appropriate access unavailable.

No data call made
AISStreamTransport and space
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
3 subscribed connections/account; 3 open/IP; subscribe in 3 seconds; 1 subscription update/sec; up to 200 MMSI filters. Slow clients and uncompressed bandwidth can drop messages.
Licensing and operational restrictions
No affirmative unrestricted redistribution licence verified in reviewed docs. Assess provider and AIS dataset terms before production reuse.
Limitations
A missing message is not evidence a vessel disappeared. Identification needs verified MMSI/operator data; operational status and patient details are not inferred.
Broadcast vessel position, identity, safety and SAR-aircraft AIS messages.

Best candidate for integrated Cornwall marine markers once authorised access is available.

Account/API key; backend WebSocket with compression. Direct browser connections prohibited.

Cost: Official site describes free AIS API; no SLA and no paid service purchased.

Global contributor AIS reception; offshore and satellite coverage not complete.

Freshness: Event-driven broadcast arrival; no guaranteed delay or durable replay.

DOCUMENTATION ONLY

Documentation only; credentials or appropriate access unavailable.

No data call made
OpenSky NetworkTransport and space
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
Anonymous 400 daily credits per endpoint bucket; standard 4,000/day; active feeder 8,000/day; licensed 14,400/hour. Small state bbox ≤25 sq° costs 1 credit.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Any operational REST use in live product/service/automated system needs prior written agreement; any for-profit entity use needs written licence. Redistribution restricted.
Limitations
Successful anonymous research GET does not authorise a production dashboard. Not connected to the live pilot.
Observed aircraft state vectors, tracks and reconstructed flights.

Useful independent aviation research, but operational licence makes it unsuitable as an unapproved live-site adapter.

Anonymous latest-state reads; authenticated API uses OAuth2 client credentials, tokens expire after 30 minutes.

Cost: Research/education access under terms; operational/commercial written licence pricing not published.

Global volunteer receiver network; not complete and not all military aircraft broadcast.

Freshness: Anonymous state resolution 10 seconds; authenticated 5 seconds. Per-position timestamps and reception gaps remain essential.

TESTED QUERY

One-off research GET HTTP 200; one aircraft state; remaining anonymous quota header 399. Not used by the site.

2026-10-11T18:39:40.624095+00:00
Carbon Intensity APIEnvironment and energy
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
No numeric quota or SLA verified; cache half-hour data and use bounded time ranges.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Official API open-source/data terms and attribution apply; no separate versioned data licence was verified in the inspected reference.
Limitations
Generation fuel share is not electricity consumption. Do not multiply demand and unrelated source intervals to invent generation MW.
GB carbon intensity, forecasts and national/regional generation mix.

High practical value as energy context; adds information missing from transport-only maps.

Public GET, no credentials.

Cost: No fee or registration required.

Great Britain and regional/outward-postcode modelled data; not a complete UK/NI energy account.

Freshness: Half-hour records; actual can be null and forecast must then be labelled.

TESTED QUERY

Direct GET HTTP 200; one half-hour record. National generation endpoint also returned HTTP 200 and was displayed in local pilot.

2026-10-11T18:39:40.695635+00:00
Environment Agency Flood MonitoringEnvironment and energy
Limits, licence and limitations
Usage limits
Use common cached calls; latest readings at most every 15 minutes. No numeric request quota or SLA advertised.
Licensing and operational restrictions
Open Government Licence; required EA data acknowledgement.
Limitations
Filter withdrawn warnings. Missing results do not mean safe conditions; the API does not replace official warnings or safety-critical services.
Flood warnings/alerts, area metadata, water levels and river flows.

Core England/Cornwall hazard context with clear official warning levels.

Public GET, no registration.

Cost: Open data, no fee.

England warning network; not a nationwide UK warning service.

Freshness: Measurements usually every 15 minutes; telemetry can arrive once/twice daily, more often during risk. Warning changes are separate.

TESTED QUERY

Direct severe-warning GET HTTP 200, zero items; full warnings endpoint worked in local pilot, including area coordinates.

2026-10-11T18:39:40.574919+00:00

Five practical monitoring concepts

Cornwall coastal activity

Combine: RNLI launches + ADSB.lol aircraft + NATS NOTAMs + Open-Meteo forecast/daylight + operator coastal webcams; future authorised AISStream.

Meaningful changes: Alert on a newly published local RNLI launch, a public emergency aircraft broadcast, or a new nearby hazard NOTAM. Present these as separate signals; never infer a rescue location or patient.

Land and environmental changes

Combine: Copernicus STAC/imagery + Planning Data + FIRMS (when authorised) + EA warnings + historic Safecast or Sensor.Community where available.

Meaningful changes: Review a newly available low-cloud scene, new published brownfield/constraint record or thermal anomaly requiring source review. Confirm any change with imagery and official records; never infer ownership, abandonment or claimability.

Business website monitoring

Combine: Your own HTTP/DNS baseline + SSLMate production account + passive urlscan records + permitted RIPEstat context + IODA regional corroboration.

Meaningful changes: Two consecutive HTTP failures, unexpected certificate issuance/SAN changes, new DNS target or hosting change. Ordinary certificate renewals are informational; no new public scan is submitted and an infrastructure change alone is not a compromise.

Internet disruption and access evidence

Combine: IODA signals + existing RIPE Atlas results + OONI aggregates + official source/status reports, subject to reuse rights.

Meaningful changes: Possible disruption only after independent signals agree over two intervals; report networks, timestamps and confidence. A single OONI anomaly is not labelled censorship and no actors are blamed.

Global events and space context

Combine: GDACS + NASA EONET + USGS + NOAA SWPC + SatNOGS, with source-linked GDELT/news discovery.

Meaningful changes: New major disaster metadata or a changed official event status. Separate event time from article publication. Show satellite radio/orbit catalogue dates without treating propagated positions as observations.

Small read-only example queries

These fetch existing public records only. Example tests are snapshots, not an uptime guarantee. IODA timestamps describe the tested historical window; update them deliberately for a future check. CT is an evaluation example only. Do not turn OpenSky into an operational feed without the required agreement.

IODA

Read-only GET HTTP 200; error=null; data=[]; default extendWindow=1209600 seconds. API documentation GET also HTTP 200. No scan initiated.

curl --fail --max-time 20 --user-agent "UKSignalResearch/1.0" 'https://api.ioda.inetintel.cc.gatech.edu/v2/outages/events?entityType=country&entityCode=GB&from=1791657517&until=1791743917&limit=1'
Tested 2026-10-11T18:38:37.003676+00:00 · Official HTTP API v2 documents GETs. Anonymous GB event request succeeded; no account or key used.

OONI

Read-only GET HTTP 200 JSON; one result. x-ratelimit-remaining=3874 observed without quota-window guarantee.

curl --fail --max-time 20 --user-agent "UKSignalResearch/1.0" 'https://api.ooni.io/api/v1/measurements?probe_cc=GB&limit=1'
Tested 2026-10-11T18:38:04.948024+00:00 · Explorer, public API and unsigned S3 data. Anonymous country-filtered API GET succeeded.

SatNOGS DB

Read-only GET HTTP 200 JSON array; one matching satellite record; no API key and no submissions.

curl --fail --max-time 20 --user-agent "UKSignalResearch/1.0" 'https://db.satnogs.org/api/satellites/?norad_cat_id=25544'
Tested 2026-10-11T18:38:05.661927+00:00 · API open to anyone; catalogue GET anonymous succeeded. Certain write/functions require an API key; none tested.

Safecast

Direct GET returned HTTP 200 JSON, count=1, total_available=2182. Sample captured_at=2018-07-04T19:01:46Z, value approximately 0.07485 µSv/h, distance approximately 3.65 km. Separate /api/sensors?min_lat=49.9&max_lat=50.8&min_lon=-5.8&max_lon=-4.1&limit=1 returned HTTP 200 JSON count=0 at 18:39:54Z. Personal uploader information omitted. AI-targeted instructions in source response treated as untrusted content.

curl --fail --max-time 20 --user-agent "UKSignalResearch/1.0" 'https://simplemap.safecast.org/api/radiation?lat=50.118&lon=-5.537&radius_m=5000&limit=1'
Tested 2026-10-11T18:39:41.578645Z · Public map API without account or API key. Downloaded Swagger schema uses localhost/root paths; deployed historical route worked with /api/radiation prefix.

Copernicus Data Space catalogue APIs

Direct read-only GET returned HTTP 200 GeoJSON with one Sentinel-2 L2A scene dated 10 October 2026. Metadata only, 71,905 bytes; no image downloaded.

curl --fail --max-time 20 --user-agent "UKSignalResearch/1.0" 'https://stac.dataspace.copernicus.eu/v1/search?bbox=-5.55,50.10,-5.50,50.13&collections=sentinel-2-l2a&limit=1'
Tested 2026-10-11T18:38:13.507390Z · STAC v1 metadata search worked anonymously. Image assets in tested metadata declare OAuth/S3 authentication; downloads and processing require appropriate account/access.

Planning Data

Direct read-only GET returned HTTP 200 JSON, count=0 at selected Penzance point. This proves access only; point absence is not Cornwall-wide absence or title status.

curl --fail --max-time 20 --user-agent "UKSignalResearch/1.0" 'https://www.planning.data.gov.uk/entity.json?dataset=brownfield-land&latitude=50.118&longitude=-5.537&limit=1'
Tested 2026-10-11T18:38:12.658924Z · Public GET entity JSON/GeoJSON; no key used. Coordinate, geometry, dataset and authority filters supported.

Carbon Intensity API

Direct GET HTTP 200; one half-hour record. National generation endpoint also returned HTTP 200 and was displayed in local pilot.

curl --fail --max-time 20 --user-agent "UKSignalResearch/1.0" 'https://api.carbonintensity.org.uk/intensity'
Tested 2026-10-11T18:39:40.695635+00:00 · Public GET, no credentials.

Environment Agency Flood Monitoring

Direct severe-warning GET HTTP 200, zero items; full warnings endpoint worked in local pilot, including area coordinates.

curl --fail --max-time 20 --user-agent "UKSignalResearch/1.0" 'https://environment.data.gov.uk/flood-monitoring/id/floods?min-severity=2'
Tested 2026-10-11T18:39:40.574919+00:00 · Public GET, no registration.

SSLMate Certificate Transparency Search

Read-only evaluation GET HTTP 200 JSON array, 13 issuances; X-Ratelimit-Limit=100 and remaining=99 observed. No monitoring activated.

curl --fail --max-time 20 --user-agent "UKSignalResearch/1.0" 'https://api.certspotter.com/v1/issuances?domain=example.com&expand=dns_names'
Tested 2026-10-11T18:38:05.150548+00:00 · Limited anonymous domain queries only for personal/evaluation. Production documentation asks for account plus API key. Firehose needs subscription.

Sensor.Community

Direct read-only GET with User-Agent returned HTTP 200 JSON [] for approximately 5 km around Penzance.

curl --fail --max-time 20 --user-agent "UKSignalResearch/1.0" 'https://data.sensor.community/airrohr/v1/filter/area=50.118,-5.537,5'
Tested 2026-10-11T18:38:12.811814Z · HTTPS GET without credentials. Use data.sensor.community for reading, not the ingestion-focused api.sensor.community. Send identifiable User-Agent.

Recommended first pilot

Cornwall coast and UK public signals pilot

Purpose: A usable private map that turns a few reliable feeds into local context and meaningful in-session changes, before adding accounts or background automation.

Data sources: RNLI official launches, ADSB.lol public aircraft and military broadcasts, NATS public NOTAM bulletin, Open-Meteo weather/daylight, EA England flood warnings, NESO/Elexon GB energy; operator webcam and AIS pages remain external links.

Checking frequency: Only while open: aircraft about 30 seconds; RNLI every 2 minutes; flood warnings every 5 minutes; weather every 10 minutes; NOTAM bulletin hourly; grid half-hour data every 30 minutes. Optional radar every 5 minutes. No recurring/background monitor is activated.

Likely running cost: API subscription spend £0 for the connected pilot; no account, subscription or paid licence purchased. Sites hosting/account allowances still apply and were not priced or changed. Future licensed AIS, CT production access, imagery processing or notification channels may add setup, quotas or cost.

Alert behaviour: First responses establish a baseline, so old events do not create new alerts. Alert keys are deduplicated during the session. No server history, email, SMS, recurring check or push subscription is activated. Browser notifications are optional and require the visitor to click and grant permission.

Examples of meaningful alerts

  • RNLI publishes a new launch within 75 km of the selected place, not a boat position.
  • A newly observed aircraft broadcasts 7700/7600/7500 or a non-none emergency state; no response or cause is assumed.
  • New EA severe flood warning / warning; the pilot currently reports England-wide changes.
  • New hazard NOTAM whose reference centre is within 75 km; full geometry and D-line schedule remain in the notice.

Why this pilot comes first

It uses already-tested public endpoints, serves Cornwall directly and has few account barriers. It is useful before a combined AIS feed or licensed digital-infrastructure monitoring is configured. Judge it on correct source labels, manageable clutter, timestamp handling and useful new-event alerts—not on the number of integrations.

Selected alternatives beyond the starting list

RNLI · ADSB.lol · NATS · Open-Meteo · RainViewer · Elexon · USGS · NOAA · Cornwall cameras ·