adsb-speed-altitude.py

ADSB flight data slicer for speed and altitude by python and pandas

What this program shows

I'm interested in 3D route of aircrafts flying over my head. Mostly to/from East/West along Western Japan. This program generates speed-altitude scatter plot of aircrafts at specified longitude (Fig.2) from ADS-B data by dump1090. Specified longitude corresponds to the red line in the adsbscope screen shot.(Fig.1)

Fig.1

Fig.2 speed vs altitude, Jan 8/2022

We can see two groups of aircraft , one with 550knots and another group with 350knots at altitude 40000ft. The difference comes from the jetstream blowing from west to east over Japan. Estimated jetstream is about 100knots=180km/h.

How to do

Prepare CSV data as follows

Install RTL-SDR software on Jetson or Raspberry pi or Windows. (I used Jetson nano)

Install dump1090 from https://github.com/MalcolmRobb/dump1090

Run dump1090 as a network server.

 $ ./dump1090 --net

Open another terminal, run nc command for 7200sec to make csv

 $ timeout 7200 nc localhost 30003 > adsb1.csv

MSG,3,111,11111,780A7B,111111,2022/01/08,17:29:07.820,2022/01/08,17:29:07.777,,36000,,,33.96786,134.76025,,,,,,0
MSG,4,111,11111,862338,111111,2022/01/08,17:29:07.833,2022/01/08,17:29:07.778,,,436,72,,,3392,,,,,0
MSG,4,111,11111,8518D0,111111,2022/01/08,17:29:07.848,2022/01/08,17:29:07.840,,,365,223,,,-1664,,,,,0
MSG,3,111,11111,850E14,111111,2022/01/08,17:29:07.853,2022/01/08,17:29:07.841,,40000,,,34.04984,136.10842,,,,,,0
MSG,4,111,11111,850E14,111111,2022/01/08,17:29:07.873,2022/01/08,17:29:07.842,,,371,236,,,0,,,,,0
MSG,4,111,11111,850E14,111111,2022/01/08,17:29:08.273,2022/01/08,17:29:08.236,,,371,236,,,0,,,,,0
MSG,3,111,11111,850E14,111111,2022/01/08,17:29:08.763,2022/01/08,17:29:08.758,,40000,,,34.04892,136.10687,,,,,,0

shows ICAO=850E14, speed=371 , altitude=40000, lat=34.04892, lon=136.10678

 $ chmod +x adsb-speed-altitude.py
 $ adsb-speed-altitude.py adsb1.csv

Change "baselon" to your neighbor longitude to get a slice at specified longitude.

Output is a speed vs altitude plot at specified longitude in "date-time".jpg

$ adsb-angle-altitude.py adsb1.csv

produces track-angle vs altitude as a trackangle-date-time.jpg

Fig.3 track angle vs altitude

Fig.4 speed vs altitude , May 16/2023

Figure 1 shows a two-hour observation on the evening of January 8, 2022, and Figure 4 shows another two-hour observation on May 16, 2023, for comparison. The difference between the westbound and eastbound flight speeds has narrowed, with the maximum being about 100 knots, so the jet stream appears to have decreased to about 50 knots, or 90 km/h.

LICENSE Apache 2.0

copyright 2023 by coniferconifer

Ref. https://ttrf.tk/posts/2017-09-18-plotting-airrace-tracklog-with-rtl-sdr/

Ref. https://github.com/coniferconifer/ADSB-vertical-slicer

Ref. http://www.sprut.de/electronic/pic/projekte/adsb/adsb_en.html#pc

Ref. https://www.atmos.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp/shion/u200_clim.htm

Ref. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/as-next-may-unbelievablebuttrue-180968355/