Real-time Air Traffic in 3D

The application presented here shows live air traffic over parts of Northern Switzerland and surrounding Central Europe.

The major goal of this project is to demonstrate how traffic data can be efficiently visualised in real-time and in 3D by combining state-of-the-art tools MATLAB and Google Earth.

The air traffic data displayed are collected by an ADS-B receiver (Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast) on one of the buildings at ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, School of Engineering, Winterthur, Switzerland.

The development of the ADS-B receiver was conducted by Marcel Rupf (ZSN). The well known web application http://radar.zhaw.ch/, which is using these data, was initiated and coordinated by Karl Rege (InIT) and developed by a group of students at ZHAW.

There is a huge variety of other data (static or dynamic) from various fields, which can be visualised with Google Earth. In many cases the adaptation / extension of the framework developed in this project is quite straightforward.

Procedure

1. Install Google Earth (GE), if you haven't done it already (to download: click here).
2. To get an optimal view of the airplane trajectories, please change the GE settings as
   recommended below first.
3. (a) If you use Mozilla Firefox, click here to download the application file. You will be
   asked to open the file "AirTraffic3D.kmz" with GE. Press 'Ok' and the application will start
   automatically.
   (b) If you use Internet Explorer, right-click here and save the file as "AirTraffic3D.kmz"
   on your computer. To start the application, double-click "AirTraffic3D.kmz".

Please note, that by running the application with Google Earth, you can make full use of all settings available.

• Depending on the speed of your internet connection, it might take a few seconds to load
  the screen overlays and the airplane models after starting the application.
• As the initial altitude of GE is approximately 11'000 km above sea level, you need to zoom
  in to around 10 to 300 km, depending on the area and the level of detail you want to see.
• The trajectories and the information overlays on the left side of the screen are updated
  around every 10 seconds.
  
  

For each airplane, the following information/objects is shown:

• Airplane model, together with flight number, last known altitude (meters), and current data
  status:
  A = Active (valid data received in last time interval)
  W = Waiting (no or not enough valid data received in last time interval)
  L = Landing
• Trajectory in 3D space (colour according to altitude)
• Trajectory, projected on ground (grey, semitransparent)
• Vertical line, pointing towards the centre of the earth 

• While you are running this application, disable all layers, except: borders and labels, terrain,
  and 3D buildings.
• To prevent the airplane text become too dominant on the screen, set the label/icon size to
  small as follows: Select Tools in the GE menu, choose "Options" and set "Labels/Icon Size"
  to small within "3D View". 
• Hide the sidebar to see the maximum area/airspace.
  
  

To demonstrate some of the capabilities of the tool we provide several screen shots and movies below. Please note that the image resolution of the movies is reduced (in comparison to the original) due to file compression.

• Approaching airplanes (JPG, 1.1 MB)
• Landing airplanes (JPG, 1.2 MB)
• Close-up view of an airplane model (JPG, 1.2 MB)
• Starting airplane (JPG, 1.3 MB)
• Airplanes in waiting loop (JPG, 1.3 MB)
  
  

• Tracing airplanes in real-time (WMV, 43.8 MB)
  
• Starting airplanes in time-lapse mode (WMV, 22.8 MB)
• Airplane movements during about two hours in time-lapse mode (WMV, 35.6 MB)
  
  

By navigation in this context we mean that you (the observer) can move virtually through the
3-dimensional space. Besides well known standard operations with the mouse (e.g., rotation of the earth), there are two options to navigate in GE:

(1) by using the navigation elements on the top right of the screen, or

(2) by using the scroll wheel of the mouse together with some specific buttons on the keyboard.

We recommend to use the second option, as it allows more precise and often faster navigation.

Note that by additionally pressing the ALT button, the first three movements listed above become a lot smoother.

• MATLAB
• Google Earth
• KML Reference
• Google Sketchup
  
  

• Website 'Zurich Airport'   
• Next arrivals and Next departures
• Airport site plans   
• Zürich Airport (Wikipedia)   
• Examples of flight traces according to IFR to and from Zurich Airport (in German only)   
• Monthly aircraft movements at Zurich Airport (in German only)
  
  

• Website 'Slot Coordination Switzerland' (SCS)
• Airport capacity Zurich, Winter 2009, 25.10.2009 to 27.03.2010 (Coordination step: Start of Season)
  Number of arrivals and departures per 30 minute interval, CET, Monday to Sunday: Table, Chart (JPG, 713 KB)
• Airport capacity Zurich, Summer 2010, 28.03.2010 to 30.10.2010 (Coordination step: Start of Season)
  Number of arrivals and departures per 30 minute interval, CEST, Monday to Sunday: Table (tba), Chart (tba)
  
  

• Live air traffic over Switzerland: A web application developed by InIT and ZSN (both at ZHAW)
• Center for Aviation and Transport Systems at ZHAW
• AirlineUpdate.com: International airline industry directory
• IATA codes: airlines and airports
• ICAO codes: airlines and airports 
• List with airplanes per airline worldwide
• FlightStats: Flight, airline, and airport information
• Libhomeradar: Library for aircraft information (free for non-commercial use)   
• EUROCONTROL   
• Skyguide   
• Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA)
• International Air Transport Association (IATA)   
• International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
  
  

The application is written completely in MATLAB (release 2009b) and runs on an ESXi 4.0 server with operating system Linux CentOS 5.4. The kml files generated are in accordance with KML version 2.2. The 3D airplane model was drawn with Google Sketchup 7 (Credits to Patrick13 for providing the basic version of the Airbus A340-300 model).

• Remo Maurer (Head IT, SoE) for providing invaluable support with the Linux server and for
  getting it running!
• Daniel Kramarz (InIT) for valuable hints on the web service (raw data).
  
  

Any comments and suggentions are highly welcome! Please find my contact information here.

The development of the application presented here was not part of a funded project or any other ongoing research or teaching activity.

The application presented on this website is for demonstration purposes only. All kinds of liability claims for the data presented here, their correctness, their accuracy, or any resulting conclusions on true airplane trajectories in the considered airspace are overruled. Nor myself neither my employer (ZHAW) shall be liable for any damage of any kind in connection with the use of this application. All information provided additionally by Google Earth is in the sole responsibility of Google, Inc. 

• Google™, Google Earth™, and Sketchup™ are trademarks of Google, Inc.
• MATLAB® is a registered trademark of The MathWorks, Inc.