About
What TowerScope is
TowerScope shows real air traffic around Houston in 3D, plus a mock-up of a tower controller's screen for any US airport. It's a free, independent demo built only on public data. Don't use it for flying or air traffic control.
What you can do here
- Live. Planes around IAH, Hooks and Conroe in 3D, a few seconds after they report. Switch between Map, Tower, Cockpit and Tabletop. Flip to Replay to scrub through the last three days.
- Airports. A fact page for over 900 US airports: runways, radio frequencies, elevation and location.
- Controller. A concept of a tower controller's screen for any US airport: planes in the air, planes on the ground, a strip for each flight and the latest weather.
Status right now
Checking the live feed.
Real or guess
Real
- Where each plane is, its height, speed, direction, climb rate, flight number and plane type, as the plane broadcast it.
- The time of each report.
- Runway positions and lengths.
- Terrain, buildings and roads.
- Replay: every check of the feed is saved for 72 hours, including the ones that failed, which show up as gaps.
Guess
- The smooth path between reports. To draw it, Live runs about 10 seconds behind real time.
- How the plane tilts in Cockpit. Planes don't broadcast that, so we work it out from climb and turn rate.
- Labels like arriving, departing, on the ground or passing over. They come from height, climb and direction, not flight plans.
- Height above the ground. Plane heights can be off by about 100 ft.
- The eye height in Tower, and Conroe's tower spot, which isn't on public maps.
- Who's next and the strips in Controller.
Not shown
- Planes without an ADS-B transmitter, ground vehicles, and spots the volunteer receivers can't hear, which is common near the ground.
- Radar or any FAA system. No flight plans, no clearances, no radio.
- Planes whose owners asked to be hidden. We drop them and don't store tail numbers.
Sources and licenses
| Data | From | License |
|---|---|---|
| Live and recorded planes | adsb.lol, asked by our server every few seconds per area | . Credited on screen. If you share an export, share it under ODbL with the same credit. |
| Planes in Controller | The same adsb.lol feed through our server. The ground view also asks adsb.fi and OpenSky from your browser, when they allow it. | Each network's own terms. |
| Map, buildings, roads | OpenStreetMap, served from our own server | ODbL 1.0, credited on screen |
| Terrain | AWS Terrain Tiles | Open data with credit |
| Weather reports | AviationWeather.gov (METAR and pilot reports) | US government, public domain |
| Rain radar | NEXRAD via the Iowa Environmental Mesonet, every 5 minutes | Public data |
| Airports and runways | OurAirports and FAA data | Public domain |
| Tower positions | OpenStreetMap (IAH and Hooks). Conroe is our estimate. | ODbL 1.0 |
| Software | MapLibre GL JS, three.js, PMTiles, Leaflet | BSD and MIT, notices kept |
We don't use Google 3D Tiles, Cesium ion, Flightradar24 or ADS-B Exchange. Their terms restrict this kind of use.
Limits
- TowerScope is a demo for learning. It is not for flying, navigation, emergencies, keeping planes apart or any real decision.
- It is not an FAA system and doesn't match any FAA or vendor product.
- A replay is rebuilt from volunteer receivers. It is not an official record of what happened.
- Airport facts can be out of date. Check official sources before you rely on them.
Words you'll see
- ADS-B
- The signal most planes broadcast every second or so: who they are, where they are, how high and how fast.
- METAR
- An airport's weather report: wind, visibility, clouds, temperature and air pressure. Usually every hour.
- PIREP
- A weather report from a pilot in the air, like bumps or icing at a certain height.
- kt
- Knots, the speed unit in aviation. One knot is about 1.15 mph.
- NM
- Nautical mile. About 1.15 regular miles.
- ft
- Feet. Plane heights are in feet above sea level.
- Flight level
- Height in hundreds of feet. FL350 is 35,000 ft.
- Tower cab
- The glass room at the top of a control tower.
- Strip
- A controller's card for each flight, so nothing gets missed.
- Separation
- The minimum gap controllers keep between planes.