The tests will guarantee that the Colorado-based facility will be able to track Santa’s progress on Christmas Eve, so good children can go to sleep secure in the knowledge that presents will be under the tree as scheduled, NORAD officials said.

“The test will definitely add to our precision tracking of Santa Claus,” Maj. Gen. Eric Findley, NORAD’s director of operations, said in a news release detailing the experiment. “We did a small-scale test last year, but it lasted only a few minutes … this test will last 30 minutes” and include more sophisticated technologies, Findley said.

Describing the agreement with Santa as “unprecedented,” NORAD officials said that the test would begin with lift-off at the North Pole and include radar, escorts provided by U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter jets and CF-18 fighters from the Canadian Air Force, and satellite tracking.

NORAD scientists explained that Rudolph, who traditionally leads Santa’s sleigh team, has a bright red nose that emits an infrared signature easily picked up by space-based sensors.