skies-adsb

image of the skies-adsb app running in a browser showing air traffic around KMIA in Miami, FL

Introduction

skies-adsb transforms your browser into a real-time 3D air traffic display. Using unfiltered ADS-B data from an RTL-SDR receiver, explore your local air traffic, surrounding airspace, and geography with custom 3D maps you can tailor to your needs.

Features

• Real-time aircraft tracking and rendering using unfiltered ADS-B data
• Deployable on a Raspberry Pi on your local network
• Compatible with existing ADS-B installations on separate hosts
• Enhanced flight data via FlightAware AeroAPI v4
• Aircraft photos integration from Planespotters.net
• Custom map layers powered by Natural Earth data, FAA airspace data, and OpenStreetMap
• Mobile-friendly, touch-optimized web interface

recording of the skies-adsb app running in a browser demonstrating the use of the onscreen controls

Custom Map Layers

skies-adsb provides the tools you need to create custom map layers. Choose your center point of origin, download the required datasets (Natural Earth and FAA airspace data), and generate a real-time bird's-eye view of air traffic around your ADS-B installation. Visualize nearby airports and other points of interest in your local airspace.

Download the Natural Earth and FAA airspace datasets using the instructions in the document below to begin creating your custom map layers. See:

HOWTO Build Custom Map Layers

Examples of custom map layers: Miami International (KMIA), LaGuardia (KLGA), and Mexico City International (MMMX) airports

Installation Guides

Below is an installation guide for setting up skies-adsb on a Raspberry Pi either as a new install or on top of an existing Raspberry Pi installation:

Raspberry Pi Install Guide

If you do not have an Raspberry Pi or you wish to use an existing ADS-B decoder already running on a network (or localhost) you can run skies-adsb as a local webapp by following this guide:

No Raspberry Pi Install Guide / Use Existing Decoder

HOWTOs

HOWTO securely deploy skies-adsb with Cloudflare Tunnel (OUTDATED)

Development

The app is written using WebGL+HTML5+CSS+JavaScript and it works on all of the latest major browsers: Chrome (Desktop+Mobile), Firefox (Desktop), and Safari (Desktop+Mobile).

For information on how to setup a development environment for skies-adsb see here:

HOWTO Development

Flight information and other data sources are managed via a local Flask API server proxy. See:

Flask API Server Docs

Contributing

Please report bugs via the issue tracker.

Please submit any feature requests via the issue tracker.

Thanks

I would like to give special thanks to the following people who gave me valuable feedback and helped me debug the app:

Andre Thais CFI

Frank E. Hernandez

Attribution

Natural Earth Data

High-quality public domain map datasets are provided by Natural Earth.

OpenStreetMap Data

Additional map data provided by OpenStreetMap via the Overpass API.

Fallback Aircraft Photo

Pan Am Boeing 747-121 N732PA image by Aldo Bidini
Source: Wikimedia Commons

References

https://mode-s.org/decode/index.html

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-quick-start-guide/

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/

https://www.flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/build/

https://www.flightaware.com/commercial/aeroapi/

https://pygis.io/docs/a_intro.html

https://geopandas.org/

https://www.naturalearthdata.com/

https://adds-faa.opendata.arcgis.com/

https://www.openstreetmap.org/