The Rendition Project, run by UK academics, has collaborated with the NGO Reprieve to produce one of the most detailedand illuminating research projects shedding light on the CIA's extraordinary rendition project to date.

In a single interactive graphic, it shows in great detail the data behind every confirmed and suspected rendition flight, and then – as it's also intended as a tool to fuel further research and digging – a huge number of other flights of the planes linked to rendition. In total, the data powering the graphic runs to more than 11,000 lines.

Of course, that means that the graphic's complex, and so we've provided a guide on how to read and interpret it below.

A key caveat is that not every flight contained within the interactive is tied to rendition: some are suspected rendition flights, others are simply flights from planes with tail numbers that were used on suspected rendition flights.

It's also important to note that just because a particular company owned or operating a plane believed to have been involved in rendition, it does not necessarily follow that the company itself was involved or even aware of those activities. In some cases, it's unclear whether the airline companies would have been aware of the purpose of the flights.

A wealth of supporting data and research – including original documents – has been published directly on The Rendition Project's website.

Now, here's how to get the most from the interactive:

Picking what to look at

By default, the graphic shows a huge tangle of different flight routes – it's displaying information on the 1,500 or so flights marked as significant within the data: the ones with some suspected involvement in rendition (those doing advanced research can toggle this off using the "key circuits only" drop-down menu).

The graphic's easiest to use if this is narrowed down. The graphic is broken down into "circuits" of flights: a full trip made up of several different legs. The screenshot used to illustrate this post represents a round-the-world circuit made up of a number of different airport-to-airport trips.

Circuits can include original journeys from America, R&R stops in the Caribbean, refuelling stops, and the central rendition journeys themselves.

The menu on the left-hand side of the graphic gives a range of ways the information can be narrowed down: trips which only take in certain airports can be picked, or particular companies, or particular individuals known to have been targets of rendition. The date range can also be selected using the sliding toggles.

Hitting the large "SEARCH" button at the bottom-left will then update the map with the new settings.

What the different colours mean

Different individual flights are colour-coded by their significance.

The simplest flights are marked in grey. These are legs of the flights where the researchers had no reason to believe there was any detainee aboard the aircraft. These mark refuelling stops, planes getting into position, R&R stops, or similar.

At the other end of the scale, strong red lines mark a flight designated a "rendition flight". These are flights where the researchers are as near as possible as investigators on these topics can be to certain that a detainee – often a named detainee – was aboard the plane. These are backed by a wealth of evidence.

Paler red lines mark "highly suspicious" or "suspicious" flights – one where there is evidence – often strong – to believe a detainee was aboard a given flight, but where the researchers are not quite so confident.

Some of the "suspicious" flights have been flagged because of very similar routes or timings to flights tied to rendition, rather than specific evidence on that particular flight.

The blue lines are perhaps the most interesting, as they shed light on the lengths US authorities went to in attempts to hide rendition flights. Blue designates "dummy" flight plans: routes handed in to air traffic authorities, and then never flown.

Instead, the planes flew to entirely different airfields – often in different countries altogether – typically with an unwilling passenger on board.

Getting the evidence

There are some written details on any flights shown in the map window in the table below it in the graphic. Any flights with a red square in this table – which should include any flights with confirmed or suspected renditions – have substantial further information available.

Hovering over this red square will supply some basic information on the flight, along with a range of links to further information (where available) on that particular circuit, the planes, or the detainees, directly from The Rendition Project's website.

Once you're looking at just a single circuit on the map, the table below the map includes information on each individual flight on that trip.

Where it's available, the researchers have included direct links to the source material, including invoices and court records, supporting their claims.

Further queries, research, and more

The team behind the graphic intend for it to be used to dig out further evidence of any more, still unknown, rendition flights – or to shed more light on those already uncovered.

As such, they've provided a huge amount more information on the graphic, the data collection methods, advanced functionality and more directly at their website.

We're also keen to see what people have found – or want to know – from the graphic. Feel free to let us know in the comments below, on Twitter @GuardianData, or if you'd prefer, confidentially by email to james.ball@theguardian.com