I use the satellite.js library, which uses SGP4
https://github.com/shashwatak/satellite-js
External Quote:
Flight Tracking
- Thread starter Mendel
- Start date
https://github.com/shashwatak/satellite-js
FatPhil
Senior Member.
The extrapolation from just the Jan 1 TLE looks pretty good for a few weeks, maybe even a couple of months, not just "a few days", depending on your accuracy requirements. Of course, you should always know the limitations of the data and the model you use, but it doesn't seem as bad as you're making out.
Easy Muffin
Senior Member.
Ah, I could have been more specific - by for reentry prediction purposes I meant the comparatively short time span of the days preceding the eventual burn-up. In the graph it'd be shortly before the point at which the perigees begin to deviate.
FatPhil
Senior Member.
OK, understood, yup the exponential increase of air density towards earth does mean that the resistence ramps up as it approaches its final orbits, so any errors in your input result in larger errors in the output, and so your model gets significantly less predictive as the catastrophe gets closer.
jimmyslippin
Active Member
Do any of these (or any other) tools show flight plan data for flights scheduled in the future?
Specifically, the National Science Foundation has a Gulfstream V (N677F) used for environmental research (https://www.eol.ucar.edu/observing_facilities/hiaper) that has a schedule of projects with flights approved well in advance (https://www.eol.ucar.edu/content/raf-plans-and-schedules).
Where would this data pop up that I would be able to monitor and then, say, plan an entire episode of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch around it to turn something mundane into high strangeness spookometry?
Specifically, the National Science Foundation has a Gulfstream V (N677F) used for environmental research (https://www.eol.ucar.edu/observing_facilities/hiaper) that has a schedule of projects with flights approved well in advance (https://www.eol.ucar.edu/content/raf-plans-and-schedules).
Where would this data pop up that I would be able to monitor and then, say, plan an entire episode of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch around it to turn something mundane into high strangeness spookometry?
Duke
Senior Member.
FR24 has a search feature, here is what popped up for the NSF Gulfstream you identified. You can look up planned flights on scheduled airlines, must be a function of filed flight plans. If NSF files a flight plan for the a/c, I would think you should be able track it throughout the flight.
Mendel
Senior Member.
Mind you, flight plans can and do change. Delayed departure, bad weather, parts of the airspace getting closed because a head of state is travelling, part of the aircraft falling off, and countless other reasons can all affect whether the prediction of the flight plan comes true.
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jimmyslippin
Active Member
This may need to be broken out into its own thread, but a bit of background on why I am asking this question.
According to the NCAR Earth Observing Laboratory project schedule I linked to earlier, N677F is scheduled to undertake twelve flights from June through August as part of a NSF NCAR MethaneAIR project named MAIR-E.
Source: NCAR / EOL Research Aviation Facility 2024 Planning Chart
The flight paths for these operations are pretty complex. Here is some historical N677F flight data from MethaneAIR Phase 2 that took place on 11 August 2021 while former Utah Governor Gary Herbert was visiting Skinwalker Ranch.
Source: ADS-B Exchange
So if I was, say, Erik Bard monitoring the skies over Skinwalker Ranch for spooky Government spy vehicles, how far in advance of this flight actually happening could I obtain the kind of flight path data shown above? Could I also just look at a specific area for future flight data rather than individual aircraft?
According to the NCAR Earth Observing Laboratory project schedule I linked to earlier, N677F is scheduled to undertake twelve flights from June through August as part of a NSF NCAR MethaneAIR project named MAIR-E.
Source: NCAR / EOL Research Aviation Facility 2024 Planning Chart
The flight paths for these operations are pretty complex. Here is some historical N677F flight data from MethaneAIR Phase 2 that took place on 11 August 2021 while former Utah Governor Gary Herbert was visiting Skinwalker Ranch.
Source: ADS-B Exchange
So if I was, say, Erik Bard monitoring the skies over Skinwalker Ranch for spooky Government spy vehicles, how far in advance of this flight actually happening could I obtain the kind of flight path data shown above? Could I also just look at a specific area for future flight data rather than individual aircraft?
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Mendel
Senior Member.
if you had government contacts, you might even be able to affect the schedule
JMartJr
Senior Member.
Just for those like me who did not already know where Skinwalker Ranch is on that map, it's roughly where I've added the green dot.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinwalker_Ranch#/map/0
Giddierone
Senior Member.
Walking the dog this morning I noticed what looked like a large bright orange balloon.
I couldn't really make out the shape either on my phone or through sunglasses, but it was definitely bright orange. Below it was something hanging down like a reflective tag or basket. Maybe even a light, it was just impossible to tell what. It caught the light and flashed white momentarily.
I was looking at it for a few minutes because it appeared completely still. I pointed it out to the two people walking their dogs toward me. They stopped and saw it too, and we all thought it was large and really high up. "It looks like it's in the flight path" one of them said.
What's disappointing is that the iphone photos I took of it look nothing at all like what I could see. It was *bright orange*, and only a tiny pixel of orange appeared in one of the photos. It was amorphous.
The colour was very like this air ambulance (which, having tried to identify it on ADSBexchange.com was one of the aircraft in the air at that time, however the flightpath for this aircraft is in a straight line over where we were and not a hover over one spot).
This object appeared completely stationary and balloon-like, (no rotor) and I'm pretty sure it wasn't a helicopter because a). It appeared to be higher than any helicopter I've ever seen, it was barely resolvable to the eye and b). we couldn't hear any noise. But perhaps I'm wrong and helicopters like this have a reason to loiter very high up for some reason? (although I've never seen it).
The last picture I took shows it apparently in front of the clouds - I didn't notice this at the time I took the picture. So my conclusion is that we were all simultaneously mistaken. It was a balloon, probably quite small and not nearly as high as it appeared.
Distracted by my dog I lost it in the cloud.
Here's the airtraffic for that period of time from ADSBexchange. The closest thing I could think is the GEHMS air ambulence, but the only track shows it flying direct toward me (red arrow) not hovering for several minutes.
The images are almost comically bad... Here's how it first appeaerd. [taken at 09:49:44] Inside the red box, centre of the frame. The two people walking towards who I spoke with are in the botton of the frame.
Here's my location when taking the picture.
Below is two image layers with lighten applied. [taken at 09:51:23 and 09:51:25]. I was trying to see if it moved between shots. It shows just how small the object was (two tiny dots), but this in no way represents what It "looked like" - I looked much larger. The magnitude was more like Venus and the colour, as menioned was like the air ambulence above.
This is the last image taken at 09:53:22. The tiny orange speck in the centre of the frame is the object. To my eye this was behind the clouds not in front of it.
I couldn't really make out the shape either on my phone or through sunglasses, but it was definitely bright orange. Below it was something hanging down like a reflective tag or basket. Maybe even a light, it was just impossible to tell what. It caught the light and flashed white momentarily.
I was looking at it for a few minutes because it appeared completely still. I pointed it out to the two people walking their dogs toward me. They stopped and saw it too, and we all thought it was large and really high up. "It looks like it's in the flight path" one of them said.
What's disappointing is that the iphone photos I took of it look nothing at all like what I could see. It was *bright orange*, and only a tiny pixel of orange appeared in one of the photos. It was amorphous.
The colour was very like this air ambulance (which, having tried to identify it on ADSBexchange.com was one of the aircraft in the air at that time, however the flightpath for this aircraft is in a straight line over where we were and not a hover over one spot).
This object appeared completely stationary and balloon-like, (no rotor) and I'm pretty sure it wasn't a helicopter because a). It appeared to be higher than any helicopter I've ever seen, it was barely resolvable to the eye and b). we couldn't hear any noise. But perhaps I'm wrong and helicopters like this have a reason to loiter very high up for some reason? (although I've never seen it).
The last picture I took shows it apparently in front of the clouds - I didn't notice this at the time I took the picture. So my conclusion is that we were all simultaneously mistaken. It was a balloon, probably quite small and not nearly as high as it appeared.
Distracted by my dog I lost it in the cloud.
Here's the airtraffic for that period of time from ADSBexchange. The closest thing I could think is the GEHMS air ambulence, but the only track shows it flying direct toward me (red arrow) not hovering for several minutes.
The images are almost comically bad... Here's how it first appeaerd. [taken at 09:49:44] Inside the red box, centre of the frame. The two people walking towards who I spoke with are in the botton of the frame.
Here's my location when taking the picture.
Below is two image layers with lighten applied. [taken at 09:51:23 and 09:51:25]. I was trying to see if it moved between shots. It shows just how small the object was (two tiny dots), but this in no way represents what It "looked like" - I looked much larger. The magnitude was more like Venus and the colour, as menioned was like the air ambulence above.
This is the last image taken at 09:53:22. The tiny orange speck in the centre of the frame is the object. To my eye this was behind the clouds not in front of it.
Attachments
Mendel
Senior Member.
What was its altitude?
I think of two ways a flight path towards you might have looked like a hover.
You're not going to see the rotor in flight, and you might not hear it depending on distance/altitude.
Giddierone
Senior Member.
Around 1200ft which is typical for helicopters seen in the area that travel to and from the London Heliport. As I mentioned this appeared to be very high up and to my eye, not a helicopter. It's orange colour was the only similarity with an air ambulence.
Thanks, I couldn't see anything that fits.
Mendel
Senior Member.
orange party balloon with a postcard attached, maybe?
Resistor
New Member
Live Air Traffic Control radio transmissions can be heard here - https://www.liveatc.net/
The archive link is here - https://www.liveatc.net/archive.php
Roosevelt Airport was used by the Pitts crew as their staging base for the failed smoke test. https://www.airnav.com/airport/74V
Real time monitoring of SWR air traffic - https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?airport=KVEL
The archive link is here - https://www.liveatc.net/archive.php
I used your map to find the ranch on a aeronautical sectional map - https://vfrmap.com/?type=vfrc&lat=40.278&lon=-110.051&zoom=10&api_key=763xxE1MJHyhr48DlAP2qQ
Roosevelt Airport was used by the Pitts crew as their staging base for the failed smoke test. https://www.airnav.com/airport/74V
Real time monitoring of SWR air traffic - https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?airport=KVEL
