GEOPULSE — Changelog | Development History

V2.41 MINOR Global Winds, Tours Panel & Modularization 24 MAY 2026

✦ Global Wind Layer — 4,000 animated particles from Open-Meteo API showing real-time wind patterns, jet streams (amber at 200+ km/h), and trade winds. Canvas overlay with auto-refresh every 30 minutes
✦ "Winds of the World" Tour (#41) — 10-stop guided tour covering jet streams, trade winds, monsoons, katabatic winds, and the Roaring Forties. Wind layer auto-activates during tour
✦ Standalone Tours Panel — Tours moved from sidebar to their own floating "THE TOURS" / "DIE TOUREN" panel on the left side. Amber accent, glassmorphism, collapses on hover. Quick access to all 41 tours
✦ Code Modularization — Extracted audio.js (SFX engine), narration.js (TTS engine), and tours_data.js (1,150 lines of tour definitions) from main.js. Total reduction: 5,412 → 4,023 lines (−26%)
● Tour Status Bar Fix — Status bar now updates with "STOP x/y" on each tour step (was stuck on "OVERVIEW" for entire tour)
◆ Menu Spacing — Collapsed sidebar toggle items now have increased spacing (32px height, 6px gap) for better readability
◆ Tour Category Accordion — Improved spacing, larger tap targets, better visual hierarchy in tour category headers

V2.3 MINOR Quiz Rebalance & Stability Fixes 17 MAY 2026

✦ GeoQuiz Rebalance — Converted 7 locate-type questions to knowledge/identify for better diversity (8 locate / 24 knowledge / 18 identify)
✦ Chelyabinsk Video — Added YouTube dashcam shockwave video to the Cosmic Impacts tour
● Tour Markers Fix — Late-loaded tours (tours_new.js) now correctly show amber dots via reusable buildTourSitesIndex() + auto-rebuild on demand
● Briefing Panel HTML Fix — Conflict briefings no longer show raw <strong>/<br> tags. New safeHtml() whitelist sanitizer preserves formatting while blocking XSS
● Panel Scroll Reset — Info panel and Quiz HUD now reset scroll to top on mouse leave, so headers are always visible in collapsed state
◆ Quiz HUD Restyle — Changed from orange to blue (#3399ff) scheme, matched info-panel font, repositioned with proper spacing below About This Map

V2.2 MINOR Modularization Phase 3 MAY 2026

⚡ i18n.js Extracted — Translation system (225 lines) moved to dedicated module with setLanguage/getLanguage API
⚡ search.js Extracted — Search engine (240 lines) separated from main.js with full tour/layer search
⚡ widgets.js Extracted — Clock, visitor counter, and reset-view button (108 lines) modularized
✦ Interest-Based Intro — Welcome overlay now lets users pick an interest (Geopolitics, History, Science, Sports) to auto-open the relevant tour category
● CSP fix for service worker registration scope

V2.1 MINOR Hantavirus Tour & Security MAY 2026

✦ MV Hondius Tour — 9-stop featured tour tracking the 2026 Andes hantavirus outbreak from Ushuaia to Tenerife
✦ GeoQuiz Engine — 50 bilingual questions (locate, knowledge, identify) with map integration, timer, and difficulty modes
✦ Pandemics Tour — 8-stop tour from Plague of Justinian to COVID-19
● Security Audit — XSS sanitization via escHtml(), rel="noopener noreferrer" on all external links, reverse tabnapping prevention
◆ Hantavirus featured banner with pulsing NEW badge at top of Guided Tours
◆ Removed non-functional Global Scenarios section from sidebar

V2.0 MAJOR Aurora, Fireballs & 40 Tours MAY 2026

✦ Aurora Borealis/Australis Forecast — Real-time aurora probability overlay from NOAA OVATION model. Both hemispheres covered
✦ Meteor Fireball Tracker — NASA CNEOS data showing 150 recent fireball events with energy (kT), velocity, and Hiroshima-equivalent calculations
✦ 5 New Guided Tours — Aurora Hunters (8 stops), Cosmic Impacts (8 stops), Climate Crisis (8 stops), Great Migrations (8 stops), Espionage World (8 stops)
✦ Total tours: 40 across 5 categories
● News Ticker Fix — CSP connect-src updated with api.rss2json.com. BBC headlines now load on all platforms including mobile
● CSP pre-added: ssd-api.jpl.nasa.gov (fireballs), services.swpc.noaa.gov (aurora)
◆ Welcome overlay updated: "Now 40 guided tours!" with bilingual DE translation
◆ New toggle controls for Aurora Forecast and Fireballs in sidebar
⚡ Modular tours architecture: tours_new.js loaded separately, merged via window._TOURS_REF
⚡ Config updated: 22 layers, 20 feeds. Full bilingual i18n for all new content

V1.5.3 PATCH Layer Cleanup & Legal Compliance MAY 2026

● Live Flights Removed — The airplanes.live API only returns aircraft within 250 NM of a single query point, causing dense blob artifacts at continental zoom. Removed to maintain visual quality. ISS tracker remains as orbital feature
✦ Impressum Page — Added legally required Impressum (§5 DDG) with full contact details, data source listing, privacy statement, and disclaimer
✦ Visitor Counter Restored — Live visitor count via CounterAPI.dev now displayed in the bottom bar with 👁 icon
◆ Welcome screen updated: broader audience wording — "Für Schüler, Studenten, Lehrer & Interessierte"
◆ Impressum link added to bottom quick-links bar and about page footer
● Cleaned CSP headers, data source references, and documentation to remove airplanes.live

V1.5 MAJOR Tour Expansion & UX Overhaul MAY 2026

✦ 14 Summits Tour — All fourteen 8000m peaks with Wikipedia images, first ascent, death toll, and key facts (15 stops)
✦ Space Race Tour — From Apollo to Mars: Kennedy Space Center, Baikonur, SpaceX Starbase, and 7 more launch sites worldwide (10 stops)
✦ Extreme Earth Tour — Hottest, coldest, deepest, driest, wettest, and most remote places on the planet (10 stops)
✦ Lost Wonders Tour — Great Pyramid, Petra, Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat, Colosseum, Great Wall, Easter Island, Taj Mahal (10 stops)
✦ Draggable Tour Panel — Tour briefing panel can now be moved via mouse drag or touch on the header bar. Auto-resets on each step
✦ Immersive Zoom Boost — Tour stops now zoom +3 levels closer (capped at 14) for rich satellite detail at historic sites
✦ Tech Capitals Tour — Silicon Valley, Shenzhen, Bangalore, Seoul, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Tokyo, Singapore, Austin (10 stops)
✦ Forbidden Zones Tour — Area 51, Chernobyl, Korean DMZ, Svalbard Seed Vault, North Sentinel Island, Snake Island, Vatican Archives (10 stops)
✦ Shipwrecks & Lost Treasures — Titanic, Bismarck, Antikythera Mechanism, San José ($17B), Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge (10 stops)
◆ Bottom Bar Redesign — Merged quick-links, clock, and ticker into a single clean bottom bar. Fixed overlap issues
◆ Welcome Overlay — Added "Open Manual" button for first-time visitors alongside Demo Tour
◆ Feedback Button — Redesigned to subtle ghost button, less intrusive
◆ MapLibre attribution collapsed by default for cleaner map view
◆ Clock text color changed to white (70% opacity) for better readability
⚡ Total tours: over 34 across 5 categories + welcome onboarding

V1.4 MAJOR Welcome Tour & Narration Engine V2 MAY 2026

✦ Welcome Demo Tour — 3-step onboarding tour auto-starts for first-time visitors. Showcases real-time data, guided tours, and the 20+ layer command center
✦ Demo Tour Button — Returning users can replay the welcome tour anytime via cyan "Demo" link in the bottom-left quick-links bar
✦ Narration Engine V2 — Documentary-quality TTS with sentence-level pacing, scored neural voice selection (Microsoft Jenny, Google US English, Samantha), and dynamic rate modulation for statistics
✦ Breathing Pauses — 350–470ms calculated pauses between sentences based on complexity, length, and punctuation
✦ Smart Voice Picker — Platform-aware heuristic scores 20+ known voices per language; selects best available neural voice automatically
● Tour Layer Isolation (v2) — Complete rewrite: force-removes all 12 marker arrays + hides 17 MapLibre layers + DOM checkbox sweep. Guaranteed clean map during tours
● Reserved Word Fix — Renamed protected variable to safeText in sentence splitter (JS reserved word caused syntax error)
● Cancellation Routing — All speechSynthesis.cancel() calls now route through stopNarration() to properly clear the sentence queue
◆ Welcome tour excluded from global tour-sites ambient glow layer (no misleading dots)
◆ First-visit detection via localStorage — welcome overlay only shown once
⚡ Version bumped to V1.4 with cache-busting across all script/stylesheet references
⚡ Total tours: over 34 (including welcome demo) across 5 categories + welcome onboarding

V1.3 MAJOR Cinematic Gateway & Stability Overhaul MAY 2026

✦ Enter Gateway — Premium pre-splash screen with GEOPULSE branding. Click "▶ ENTER" to begin the experience
✦ Cinematic Audio Drone — Procedural Web Audio API soundtrack during splash intro (4-layer synth: sub drone, warm pad, ethereal shimmer, radar ping). Zero external files
✦ 🔥 Trump World Tour — 10 interactive stops: Washington → Canada → Greenland → Panama → Cuba → Venezuela → EU → Germany → Iran → New World Order. Fact-based geopolitical analysis of 2025–2026 U.S. foreign policy shifts
● Splash Screen Hang — Splash would never dismiss if main.js errors occurred. Isolated into gateway controller with inline failsafe
● Map Not Rendering — Missing } in buildWebcamPopup() caused silent syntax error preventing all JS execution
● German Tour Translations — Fixed timing bug: tours_de.js ran before TOURS were defined. Refactored to callable function with dual-trigger
◆ Gateway hover effects: neon-blue glow, pulsing enter button, animated title shimmer
◆ Audio fades in over 1.2s, sustains during radar animation, fades out with splash dissolve
⚡ Version unified to semantic V1.x across all files (config, index, about, manual, changelog)
⚡ Cache-busting bumped to v=1.3 across all script and stylesheet references

V1.2 MAJOR Tactical Layer Stabilization MAY 2026

✦ Flight Tracker Upgrade — Replaced OpenSky Network with ADSB.lol (free, keyless, community ADS-B data). Now shows 300+ real aircraft with callsign, type, registration, altitude & speed
✦ Flight data is viewport-aware — queries aircraft within 250nm of the current map center for relevant results anywhere on Earth
● ISS Tracker Fix — Popup now uses native MapLibre .setPopup() pattern for reliable click interaction. Telemetry updates on each open
● Earthquake & Volcano Visibility — Fixed toggle/layer initialization issue causing layers to remain invisible when toggled on
◆ Webcam Curation — Removed all 8 unreliable YouTube-based webcams. Curated 9 alpine & city cameras (Zugspitze, Feldberg, Nebelhorn, Munich, Innsbruck, Vienna, Salzburg, Sonnblick, Konkordiahütte) — all foto-webcam.eu verified snapshots
◆ Ships Layer Removed — No free, keyless AIS API exists for real-time vessel tracking. Layer and sidebar toggle removed cleanly
● Removed demo/simulated flight data fallback — all aircraft data is now real
⚡ Flight popup enhanced: shows aircraft type (A320, B77W), registration (D-AIXS), altitude in feet, speed in km/h
⚡ Webcam markers unified to single green color scheme (no more amber YouTube markers)
● Scenario presets updated: removed ships from Taiwan & Red Sea layer sets

V1.1 MAJOR Bilingual Audit & Educational Expansion APR 2026

✦ Full bilingual (EN/DE) audit — ~50 missing i18n keys added across tours, categories, welcome overlay, and feedback widget
✦ New tour: 🌋 Earthquakes & Eruptions — 8 stops from Tōhoku to Tambora with Wikipedia images & key figures
✦ New tour: 🏅 Olympic Games History — 9 stops from Athens 1896 to Paris 2024 with participants, sports, spectator data
✦ Total tours: over 34 across 5 categories (Geopolitics, History, Society & Rights, Science & Nature, Sports & Culture)
✦ New tour: 🏛️ Roman Empire — 8 stops from Rome to Constantinople with territory overlay map visualization
✦ ISS popup enhanced with NASA image, mass (420t), crew (7), Wikipedia link, and educational facts
● Flights & Ships layer visibility — increased circle radii + white stroke outlines for all zoom levels
● Audio narration button now always visible (min-width, flex-shrink, white-space fixes)
◆ Tour category headers now translate with data-i18n attributes (DE: GEOPOLITIK, GESCHICHTE, etc.)
◆ Welcome overlay fully translatable (features, buttons, footer)
◆ Feedback widget labels now bilingual
⚡ Webcam & border layer i18n keys added to dictionary
✦ 🎬 VIDEO PILOT — Embedded YouTube videos at key tour stops (Earthquakes & Olympics)
✦ Bilingual audio narration — German voice when DE active, smart voice picker for natural-sounding TTS
✦ FULL BILINGUAL MODE — All tours (200+ steps), all map popups, all status messages translated to German
✦ Roman Empire territory GeoJSON overlay with fill & dashed border (117 AD boundaries)
✦ Direct map layer toggling in tours via '@' prefix (non-sidebar layers)
● Audio button now speaks immediately on click (not just on step change)

V10.5 MAJOR Historical Expansion & Global Intelligence APR 2026

✦ New tour category: ▸ HISTORY with dedicated sidebar section
✦ Tour: 🪖 World War I (1914–1918) — 8 stops from Sarajevo to Versailles
✦ Tour: ⚔️ World War II (1939–1945) — 9 stops from Gdańsk to Hiroshima
✦ Both tours open with full overview: duration, cause, belligerents, and casualties
✦ Wikipedia thumbnail images on 15 key tour stops via Wikimedia REST API
✦ Images across 7 tours: WW1, WW2, F1, FIFA, Ring of Fire, Nuclear, Cold War
✦ Country Borders toggle — Natural Earth 110m boundaries via jsDelivr CDN
✦ 121 country name labels with zoom-dependent visibility (zoom 3–8)
✦ Global visitor counter — CounterAPI.dev replaces localStorage (offset: 1247)
● Flights layer: demo aircraft fallback when OpenSky API is rate-limited
◆ AUDIO button label added to tour narrate button for discoverability
◆ Tour image container with fade-in animation and caption styling
⚡ CSP updated: Wikimedia img-src, CounterAPI connect-src, jsDelivr CDN
⚡ TopoJSON client library for efficient border geometry conversion
● Total tours: 14 across 4 categories (Geopolitics, History, Science, Sports)

V10.4 MINOR User Feedback Widget APR 2026

✦ Floating feedback widget (💬 bottom-right corner)
✦ Interactive 5-star rating with hover effects
✦ Feature preference selector, wish input, and comment box
✦ Submit opens pre-filled Google Form — no login required
◆ GitHub Issues bug report link with pre-filled template
⚡ Config-driven: form URL and field IDs set in config.js

V10.3 MAJOR Tour Expansion & Audio Narration APR 2026

✦ 5 new guided tours: Chokepoints, Battery Race, Climate Frontlines, Water Wars, Formula 1
✦ Total: 11 interactive cinematic tours with 85+ educational stops
✦ Audio narration via Web Speech API — 🔊 toggle on briefing panel
◆ Categorized tour menu: Geopolitics / Science & Nature / Sports & Culture
◆ Color-coded category headers in sidebar
⚡ Zero-dependency narration — browser-native, no API keys, no backend

V10.2 MINOR Trump World Tour APR 2026

✦ New Guided Tour: "Trump World Tour — Power, Deals & Disruption (2025–2026)"
✦ 10 interactive stops: Washington → Canada → Greenland → Panama → Cuba → Venezuela → EU → Germany → Iran → Global Summary
✦ Fact-based geopolitical analysis of U.S. foreign policy shifts and global consequences
◆ Each stop auto-activates relevant layers (Regimes, Alliances, Conflicts, Cables)
◆ Distinctive orange-red (#ff6633) accent for tour button

V10.1 MINOR Webcam Overhaul & Intelligence Cleanup APR 2026

✦ Live Webcam system rebuilt — 18 real cameras worldwide
✦ 9 foto-webcam.eu snapshot cameras (Alps, Zugspitze, Feldberg/Wiesbaden, Innsbruck, Vienna, Salzburg)
✦ 9 YouTube channel embeds (Matterhorn, Kyiv, NYC, Tokyo, Paris, London, Beijing, Yosemite)
✦ Camera catalog data model with source type, provider, and tags
✦ Auto-refresh snapshots every 60 seconds
✦ Graceful offline fallback UI ("SIGNAL LOST" / "STREAM OFFLINE")
◆ Green markers for reliable snapshots, amber for YouTube streams
◆ CSP updated — foto-webcam.eu img-src + YouTube/foto-webcam frame-src
⚡ Removed defunct Intelligence panel (HTML, JS, CSS — ~200 lines dead code)
⚡ Removed fake SVG skyline webcam placeholders
● Updated manual, about page, and config to reflect current features

V10.0 MAJOR Educational Platform APR 2026

✦ Guided Tour Engine — 5 interactive cinematic tours with map flyTo animations
✦ Tour: 🌋 Ring of Fire — 6 stops covering Pacific seismic activity
✦ Tour: ☢️ Nuclear Legacy — 5 stops from Chernobyl to Bikini Atoll
✦ Tour: 🌐 Digital Silk Road — 5 stops following undersea cables
✦ Tour: 🛤️ Belt & Road Initiative — 6 stops mapping China's global infrastructure
✦ Tour: 🧱 Cold War to Reunification — 6 stops from Berlin Wall to NATO expansion
✦ First-Visit Welcome Overlay with tour launcher
✦ Wikipedia "Learn More" links on all volcano and radiation popups
✦ Open Graph + Twitter Card meta tags for social media sharing
✦ Social media advert assets (TikTok 9:16 story images)
◆ Tour briefing panel with cinematic reveal-after-flight UX
◆ Interactive "Click markers for details" hint with pulsing animation
● Fixed about.html blank page (CSP blocking inline scripts)
● Removed duplicate </footer> tag corrupting DOM
✦ This changelog page

V9.0 MAJOR Stability & Mobile Overhaul APR 2026

● Fixed critical JavaScript character escaping exceptions breaking map init
● Resolved git-mangled syntax holes in main.js
● Fixed critical map click syntax error causing dark screen
✦ Restored ISS tracking and AIS ship configuration
◆ Mobile navigation stability — fixed CSS pointer-event conflicts
◆ Sidebar restructured into 3 curated educational tiers
⚡ Removed legacy unreliable telemetry code

V8.8 MINOR Global Scenarios & About Page APR 2026

✦ Global Threat Scenarios preset system
◆ Updated About page to reflect V8.8 feature set
✦ AI Infrastructure Atlas concept (data centers + energy + cables)

V8.7 MINOR Artemis II Physics Engine APR 2026

✦ Artemis II high-fidelity orbital physics engine
◆ Unified version ID system across all pages
◆ Updated documentation and about page

V8.5 MINOR Mobile 9:16 & Artemis HUD APR 2026

◆ Mobile 9:16 portrait UI optimizations
✦ Artemis HUD with real-time physics and dynamic telemetry
● Footer text cleared from global ticker overlap
● Branding z-index and HUD collision fixes

V8.4 MINOR Artemis Telemetry & Geo-Hotspots APR 2026

✦ Live Artemis telemetry integration
✦ Realistic global geo-hotspot data

V8.3 MINOR Tsunami, Ships & Artemis HUD APR 2026

✦ Artemis HUD display
✦ 100 ships AIS tracking
✦ Tsunami alerts (USGS real-time condition parameter)
● Footer positioning fixes

V8.2 MINOR Tactical UI & Intel Popups MAR 2026

◆ Tactical UI overhaul
✦ Interactive intelligence popups on all markers
✦ Video feed restoration

V7.0 – 7.4 MAJOR Premium UI, Mobile Nav & News MAR 2026

✦ Unified mobile navigation system
✦ Live news ticker with RSS feeds
✦ Power outage monitoring layer
✦ Intelligence alert cards with severity color-coding (removed V10.1)
✦ Ocean SST map replacing night lights
✦ Solar storm index in Hazards menu
◆ Midnight Slate glassmorphism design system
◆ Hardware toggle switches
◆ Share Tech Mono typography
◆ Amber ticker color with adjusted speed
● Flight tracker persistence fix
● Cable popup with capacity, year, length, and owner data

V6.0 – 6.1 MAJOR Global Command Center MAR 2026

✦ Complete rebranding as "Global Command Center"
✦ Political regime maps (Freedom House)
✦ Undersea cable network visualization
✦ Data center layer (hyperscale locations)
✦ Nuclear power plant layer
✦ Iran-Israel/USA conflict zones
✦ Black Marble night lights
✦ Clickable city popups
✦ Intelligence anomaly scanner (removed V10.1)
◆ Menu redesign with collapsible categories
● Myanmar lat/lon fix that was blocking all layer inits

V5.0 – 5.6 STABILITY Mobile & Toggle Fixes FEB 2026

● MapLibre initial DOM mount lifecycle fix
● Mobile menu click-outside hook
● Touch event conflict between overlay and map canvas
● Asynchronous debounce locking for mobile toggle
● Duplicate DOM toggle listener eradication
● Critical JavaScript crash from unclosed try-catch
● Earthquake DOM toggle missing element fix
⚡ Cache busting and toggle default improvements

V4.0 – 4.8 MAJOR Mobile UI & Live Feeds FEB 2026

✦ Full mobile UI with responsive layout
✦ Solar terminator (day/night line)
✦ NASA FIRMS wildfire data integration
✦ Top 40 global city labels (dynamic zoom scaling)
✦ Webcam feeds (global CCTV streams)
✦ Local Python batch server for data aggregation
✦ Esri satellite overzoom interpolation
✦ Simulated global airspace (Lufthansa)
✦ USGS earthquake feed
◆ Master switch override for all toggles
● Webcam image source fixes
● Weather radar enhancements

V3.0 INITIAL Satellite Globe Edition JAN 2026

✦ Initial release — MapLibre GL satellite globe
✦ Weather radar overlay
✦ AIS ship tracking
✦ ISS real-time position
✦ Basic layer toggle system
◆ Dark tactical command center aesthetic