Even in the unlikely event that the
NORAD tracking systems fail in the January 1, 2000, changeover, this will
not affect the peak period of heightened Claus activity a week earlier.
Most Claus sightings cluster around
the December 24-25 period, with all known sleigh encounters taking place
during night hours. NORAD has monitored the movements of Claus since 1955.
The military organization ordinarily watches the airspace of the United
States and Canada for signs of attack from hostile aircraft, missiles and
other high-altitude vectors.
Claus sanguine about bug
Claus, a philanthropist and citizen
of the world, describes himself as "toymaker and friend to children." He
has taken his own precautions against Y2K computer problems, citing familiarity
with the "Y1K" changeover of 999-1000.
Global positioning satellite (GPS)
systems, which investigators believe Claus uses for pinpoint navigation
purposes, are arguably the most Y2K-critical element of his activities.
"It is known that Santa uses the global
positioning system to assist in pinpointing individual houses," a NORAD
spokesperson said in a release. "The GPS system has passed extensive Y2K
compliance tests and is expected to perform flawlessly during the Y2K rollover
period."
Even if Claus' satellite link goes
down, he is demonstrably familiar with analog methods of celestial navigation,
NORAD hastened to note.
The manufacturing and demand-marketing
aspects of Claus' operation are even less likely to suffer Y2K-related
errors, as they do not rely on automation.
To make it easier to monitor
Claus activity during the 1999 "sleigh flap" -- likely to be one of the
largest waves of Claus sightings this century -- space.com and NORAD
have prepared a special CD-ROM
of advance telemetry data.
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