TORONTO -- Santa Claus has crossed the Atlantic Ocean and made his first few pit stops in Canada, according to the tracking efforts of the Canadian and U.S. militaries.

According to NORAD satellite tracking, Santa first touched down in Canada in Nunavut at around 9 p.m. EST, before heading south to Newfoundland.

Leaving behind Mrs. Claus and his legions of elves, Santa’s sleigh took off from the North Pole at 4:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, guided by his team of flying reindeer -- with Rudolph the red-nosed-reindeer leading the charge.

For the 64th time, North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) has turned its expertise to tracking Santa’s incredible mission, this year using satellites which employ infrared sensors to detect heat signature from Rudolph’s nose.

Read more: Behind the scenes at Operation NORAD Tracks Santa

The sleigh made its way across the Middle East, having flown over Afghanistan and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Santa was then spotted zooming across Athens, Israel, Palestinian territories and Egypt, Sudan, Mozambique and Swaziland.

Just before that, Santa flew across China, stopping off in Hong Kong and the Maldives.

Before Asia, the Reindeer Express had made its way through Australia, making stops in cities including Sydney and Alice Springs; before it had headed across South Korea.

According to their tracking data, which is being updated in real time, Santa is delivering about one million gifts every 12 seconds, meaning he’s given out more than 4.8 billion gifts as of 9 p.m. EST.

The NORAD Tracks Santa Twitter account says “Santa is flying fast.’ In fact, he appears to be travelling faster than the speed of sound (approximately 343 m/s).

Read more: The little-known history of why Santa wears read

Santa’s sleigh has already zig-zagged parts of the southern Pacific and Asia, before flying over Europe and then into the Americas in the latter part of his scheduled 25-hour journey.

Early on, he made some unexpected changes to his itinerary, as he was expected to start his journey in Russia, but instead began with deliveries in the Wake Islands. No reason was given for the change.

Shortly after this, he delivered presents to small island of Tuvalu, Samoa, before heading to New Zealand and the Northern Mariana Islands in the Philippine Sea.

This year, NORAD is throwing in more high-tech ways for children and parents to track Jolly Ol’ St. Nick including on Alexa, OnStar, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and 3D apps -- all of which take advantage of satellite-positioning technology.

But if you’re looking to keep it simple, people can still make telephone calls to 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) to get a precise location on Papa Noel.



QUICK SANTA FACTS

Santa’s codename at NORAD is “Big Red”

Early calls to NORAD’s Santa Tracker come from Japan and Europe; but then the bulk of the calls are attributed to people from U.S. and Canada

The Canadian government has revealed that St. Nick lives in Canada, and pays taxes here.

Santa’s sleigh is expected to zig-zag around the world from the southern Pacific and Asia, to Europe and then the Americas in a journey scheduled to take approximately 25 hours.

The now, annual Christmas Eve tradition of tracking Santa began in 1955, after a mistaken phone call to the Continental Air Defence Command -- a radar network monitoring for nuclear attacks – was answered by Col. Harry Shoup.

His conversation with a child who wanted to speak to Santa Claus sparked this longstanding tradition, which has been going on for more than half a century.

Maj. Andrew Hennessy from the Canadian Armed Forces told CTV News Channel on Tuesday he’s proud that “technology we use to keep our country safe” is also helping guide Santa.

From the archive: Santa Claus lives and pays taxes in Canada, government affirms

He said part of the joy in tracking Santa is seeing how his Christmas cheer “touches kids all over the world.”

And while “only Santa really knows his path,” Hennessy said NORAD estimates St. Nick will be flying across Canada and the rest of North America between 9 p.m. and midnight.

So he urged children, “you need to be in bed before that.” As for what Hennessy is asking from Santa, he said because seeing visiting family, “I’ve got everything I need this Christmas”

With files from CTVNews.ca and the Associated Press