Using the OpenSky ADS-B Data to Estimate Aircraft Emissions †

Abstract

The OpenSky ADS-B/Mode-S databases have been fully integrated into a computational model that is used to estimate aircraft and rotorcraft engine emissions. This paper demonstrates the basis for the method and the generalisation to a wide class of aircraft types. First, we use mathematical operations (filters and machine learning) to clean up the data and generate first-order derivatives. Then, we “fly” these trajectories using ancillary databases and numerical methods, including models for gas turbine engine emissions (CO (Formula presented.), CO, NO (Formula presented.), SO (Formula presented.), H (Formula presented.) O, particulate matter). We show results for short-commuter flights (turboprop airplane), wide-body commercial aircraft, business jets, and helicopters. We demonstrate the main features, which include the ability to aggregate data depending on city-pairs, flight distance, and altitude distribution of emissions.