It’s only a few weeks until Santa Claus comes to town, and for years the North American Aerospace Defense Command has been helping anxious kids and curious adults track jolly St. Nick as he delivers presents to all the good boys and girls of the world.

Today, the NORAD Tracks Santa site is finally up and running for 2011 – and it sports a countdown to when the tracking begins, which is of course December 24th.

NORAD has been helping families track the whereabouts of Santa for years, using a multi-faceted approach. First, they use the NORAD radar system called the “North Warning System.” This is what they use to find out the precise moment Santa leaves the North Pole.

Once he takes off, the use satellites “positioned in geo-synchronous orbit at 22,300 miles from the Earth’s surface [that] are equipped with infrared sensors, which enable them to detect heat.” If you haven’t guessed, Rudolph’s nose helps make this method particularly useful.

Next come the Santa cams, which are high-tech digital cameras that are positioned all over the world and only used once a year, for this precise purpose. Lastly, Canadian fighter jets intercept Santa as he is making his way south, and American NORAD pilots fly alongside Santa as he enters the U.S.

Of course, all of this is available for viewing using Google Earth. The actual 3D Santa tracking will be available on the NORAD Tracks Santa site starting Christmas Eve. You can also track Santa’s movements on the @NoradSanta Twitter account. Here’s an example of the types of updates you can expect there:

While you wait for the tracking to commence, the Santa Tracker site is offering the “Countdown Village,” which will reveal a new “fun activity” each day until the 24th. Today’s activity is a Christmas tree lights puzzle game.

Also, while you wait, check out this video from the 2010 Santa tracking experience:

Have you been naughty or nice so far this year? Let us know in the comments.

Norad has been working with Google for several years by way of Google Maps and Google Earth. Last year, they started using Google Analytics as well. Google is now sharing a video of last year’s Santa tracking:

On the YouTube blog, Jeff Martin writes:

Oooh, it’s almost Christmas! And that means that Santa is about to leave his digs at the North Pole to embark upon his ’09 World Tour, placing presents under the trees of good little girls and boys all over the planet. Where will he be, and when will he make it to your house?

You can find the answer at www.noradsanta.org . You see, every year, NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, tracks Santa’s journey from the time he lifts off from his Arctic village to his final stop in Hawaii at the end of a looooooooong night. You can join the ride at Noradsanta.org or try m.noradsanta.org if you prefer to do your Santa tracking on a mobile phone. You’ll also want to subscribe to the NORAD Tracks Santa YouTube channel , which will contain videos of many of his stops around the world, all captured by NORAD’s Santa Cam network.

Check out the related articles below for our coverage of Santa tracking from years past. If you go to NORAD’s site, you can see a live countdown leading up to Santa’s flight.

Related Articles:

> Tracking Santa’s Web Analytics

> Google Teams With NORAD To Track Santa

> Google To Track Santa With NORAD

The tradition of tracking Santa began as an accident in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. ad for children to call Santa misprinted the phone number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in Chief’s operations "hotline." The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check radar for Santa making his way south from the North Pole.

They’ve been tracking the fat jolly guy ever since, and over the last couple years, they’ve begun working with Google by way of Google Maps and Google Earth, but Google has now announced that NORAD relies on Google Analytics as well. A post at the Google Analytics Blog says:

Initially, the Santa Tracking team at NORAD implemented Google Analytics last year because they simply wanted to see how many visitors came to the site. But they got a lot more out of it. We spoke with Major Stacia Reddish, NORAD Tracks Santa Program Manager, after Christmas last year. "For us, 2007 was a benchmark because we didn’t have analytics data before. It will be really interesting and useful to compare last year’s statistics to this year’s." Last year, the website was featured in 6 languages and it literally got traffic from all over the world, which NORAD learned from Google Analytics. "In 2007 we had visitors from 212 countries and territories with the majority of traffic from the US, UK, and Canada," Major Reddish told us. "We logged almost 11 million visits!"

Major Reddish said that Google Analytics has been invaluable for planning and evolving the site. For instance, last year, the team made a goal to translate the site into at least one additional language for this year. But which language would be most helpful to visitors? Google Analytics reported that visitors from China spent twice as long on site as the average. So Chinese was chosen as the additional language option for 2008.

Last year’s visits to NORAD’s Santa Tracking site came from
almost every country on the planet, denoted by areas in green

Google is all about the holidays this year. They’ve been offering a ton of tips on different products, like Google Mobile (including video tips, which they’ve been tailoring specifically toward holiday situations). They’ve released holiday-themed templates for Google Docs, and of course the NORAD thing. Google’s never been one to shy away from the holidays, but it’s almost as if they’re looking to become tradition, like the Santa Claus Coke cans, Budweiser Clydesdales, and marathons of a Christmas Story.

Visitors to the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site will be able to access entertaining holiday games and activities that will change daily.

On December 24, Christmas Eve, NORAD will begin tracking Santa’s trip with live video feeds that begin at the following times:

3 a.m. Pacific Standard Time
4 a.m. Mountain Standard Time
5 a.m. Central Standard Time
6 a.m. Eastern Standard Time
11 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time

Google software will broadcast live images from NORAD’s high-speed digital "Santa Cams," and Google Maps and Google Earth will follow Santa as he travels around the globe.

All of the information from the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site is available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and new this year Chinese.

The tradition of tracking Santa began as an accident in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. ad for children to call Santa misprinted the phone number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in Chief’s operations "hotline." The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check radar for Santa making his way south from the North Pole.

This began the tradition of tracking Santa Claus, a tradition that has carried on by NORAD, when it was formed in 1958. This Christmas marks the 50th anniversary of NORAD tracking Santa Claus.

Last year the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site received 10.6 million unique visitors from 212 countries and territories.

NORAD’s an old hand at this game; an amusing (and Santa-believer safe) website describes how the tradition dates back to 1955.  Google, by contrast, will be helping out for the first time.  The search giant is handling its duties in a very enthusiastic manner, however, and is using technology including Google Maps, Google Earth, YouTube, and iGoogle.

It has also put a post on the Official Google Blog, and the post happens to have been written by Carrie Farrell.  Farrell is the granddaughter of Colonel Harry Shoup, who first started the Santa-tracking custom at NORAD.  She wrote, “I can remember tracking Santa with my grandfather as a child, and I’m so proud to see my company carry on his vision of doing something this special for kids around the world.”

Farrell then added that there will be a new game or activity on the NORAD site every day until December 24th.

Either bring your kiddies to the computer or get back to baking, then.  Santa may spend less than a thousandth of a second at each house, but you’ll want his stay to be a pleasant one.

Microsoft will play the role of Santa this year, but don’t wait for Bill Gates to drop some cash down your chimney because he’s got a much better cause to spend it on than your mid-life crisis.

Bring your child to the computer, fire up Windows Live Messenger, and chat with Father Christmas at Northpole@live.com in an interactive session.

On Christmas Eve, the kids can ask Santa where he is through Live Messenger. Instead of saying he’s freezing his holiday buns off somewhere over Saskatchewan, he’ll tell your little darlings to check out his 10-20 on NORAD’s Santa tracker.

Microsoft’s Virtual Earth has a role on the Santa tracker, which will use the mapping technology seen in Windows Live Local to show where the sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer may be in the world.

So rather than spending a silent night with the legal system for yet another misdemeanor assault at the mall, gather the family around a toasty warm computer and go the Live Messenger route. A soccer-mom somewhere will be grateful without knowing why.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

NORAD is the bi-national U.S.-Canadian military organization responsible for aerospace defense in the two nations. NORAD was created by a 1958 agreement between the Canada and the U.S. NORAD has been tracking Santa’s movements on Christmas even since that time, continuing the task started by it’s predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD). This is the 50th year of this operation.

The operation is based on a robust network of radar and satellites as well as Santa Cams and jet fighter aircraft. When the radar systems detect liftoff, satellites floating 22,300 miles overhead in a geo-synchronous orbit begin their job. These satellites track infrared heat signatures, most often generated by rockets and aircraft, or in the case of Santa’s sleigh, his team leader, Rudolph, because of his glowing red nose.

The third system used is the high-speed digital camera network called Santa Cam. The camera network, added in 1998, are prepositioned at various strategic points around the globe in an effort to track the movements of Santa and his team.

Finally, one of NORAD’s most effective tools in its mission, the squads of CF-18 fighter jets will intercept and fly escort with Santa once he hit’s Canadian air space. The fighters take off from Newfoundland and various pilots will be able to escort Santa and his legendary team of reindeer, include Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph.

This advanced system is maintained throughout the year in preparation of this one day. This year, NORAD has a number of sponsors, including Windows Live Local, AOL, AGI, Island Web Studios, ICG, MCI, Akamai, Globelink, ClearCube and the Macerich Company. All these organizations assist in keeping the network ready and to allow people the ability to get updates by phone and through the Internet.

To assist in the tracking, a variety of celebrities also lent their considerable talents to the event. Some of the starts include John Schneider of Smallville, Patrick Warburton, better known as Kronk, the LAPD, Mickey and Jan Rooney as well many others.

For the latest updates, please visit the site, NORADSanta.com. There’s video footage on the test run to Hollywood as well as video segments from the celebrities. It includes background on the event and printable maps to chart the movements of Santa Claus around the world. There’s also a hotline, 1-877-HiNORAD

From everyone here at iEntry and WebProNews, please enjoy a safe and happy holiday. Remember though, if NORAD can track him, he can surely track all of us, so be good for goodness sake.

John Stith is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.