Generate and Execute Queries of OpenSky

With the integration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the U.S. National Airspace System, low-altitude regions are being stressed in historically new ways. Unmanned aircraft must operate as to not create a MAC (midair collision), a hazard that may result in the loss of life and property. The FAA must then understand and quantify the risk of UAS collision with manned aircraft during desired low-altitude unmanned operations in order to produce regulations and standards.

A key component of these risk assessments are statistical models and characterization of aircraft flight. Recent assessments have been based on data sourced from the OpenSky Network, a crowdsourced ADS-B receiver network that provides open access to the aircraft data. The network, started in 2012 with 12 European sensors, has grown to more than a thousand worldwide active sensors. ADS-B equipped aircraft automatically self-report their position to ground stations and other equipped aircraft. In response, the em-processing-opensky repository was developed and released to process OpenSky Network data to support these assessments. To further leverage the OpenSky Network, we developed capabilities to efficiently query the historical OpenSky Network database and store the data.