Filters
Learn: why the rules work this way
Twelve things ADS-B cannot see and how the real orders handle them. For learning, not operational use.
Map view
Arrival and departure classifications are inferred from altitude, vertical speed and heading. Select an aircraft for its reported and modeled state.
Loading the airport weather…
Hazards and forecast: aviationweather.gov, public. Advisory only.
Time of day
Raw report and sources
Clouds come from the airport's latest METAR. Shapes are drawn, not observed; CB from the remarks is placed by direction only. Radar: NEXRAD reflectivity (Iowa Environmental Mesonet), decoded to dBZ and shown in the standard NWS 5 dBZ colors, updated every 5 minutes. 3D rain stands where radar shows 20 dBZ or more; its height is the measured NEXRAD echo top where there is one, otherwise the cloud base.
Estimated from public ADS-B. Not real flight progress strips.
Layers
Class B is an upside-down wedding cake: the surface area reaches the ground, each outer shelf starts at its floor (100 over 30 means 3,000 to 10,000 ft), and you can fly under a shelf without entering it.
Flow and finals
Picks the finals (20 NM, a tick every mile, a 3 degree glidepath in the air) and shows only the arrivals that feed those runways.
Routes (SIDs, STARs, approaches)
Airspace anatomy: peel Houston's airspace apart, outside in ↗
Green arrivals, orange departures, blue approaches. White bars are the published altitude windows; faint legs have estimated heights. A plane tagged ≈ DOOBI3 0.4R looks like it is on that route, 0.4 NM right of it: a geometric match, not its clearance.
Proximity comparison (demo assumptions)
Demo, not for real ATC. Pairs are compared by distance only (a geometric proximity comparison, not a separation check). The comparison distances are taken from FAA JO 7110.65 terminal and en route minima, which have conditions and exceptions this page cannot see; it cannot see clearances, visual separation, flight plans or flight rules (it assumes IFR, which ADS-B cannot confirm). Airspace, charts and routes: FAA AIS and CIFP public data, not for navigation. Keys: arrows spin and tilt, + and − zoom, 0 resets, S spins, F follows.
Research prototype · not for operational use
- Altitude
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- Ground speed
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- Direction
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- Climb rate
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- Doing
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- Position
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Estimated from public ADS-B. Not real flight progress strips.
Radar-style picture from public ADS-B. Full and limited data blocks, settable leader lines (tap a block), 1 minute predicted track lines and history dots follow public STARS descriptions. Proximity cues are a geometric comparison using distances from JO 7110.65 5-5-4 (3 NM near the field below 18,000 ft, 5 NM elsewhere, 1,000 ft, 2,000 ft above FL410); real minima depend on the radar system, antenna distance, flight rules and authorizations, which ADS-B cannot show. Low-altitude cues compare altitude with public FAA I90 MVA sectors and are not MSAW. Demo only, not for operational use.
inside the comparison distance getting close good to know · tap a row to select the plane
Flight history and export
Altitude Ground speed Vertical speed No data recorded Recorded point. Positions between reports are interpolated. Drag the chart or the bar to move through time.
Aircraft: adsb.lol contributors (ODbL 1.0) · Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), Protomaps · Terrain: AWS Terrain Tiles · Runways: OurAirports · Imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain) · Weather: aviationweather.gov METAR, NEXRAD radar via Iowa Environmental Mesonet · Aircraft sizes: FAA Aircraft Characteristics Database · Airspace: FAA AIS open data · Wake classes: FAA JO 7360.1K