There are three ways to zoom the WebTrak Map.This is the help file for the WebTrak application. You can leave it open in your browser while you are using WebTrak for quick access to help with WebTrak's features.
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What is WebTrak?
Accuracy of Flight and Track Data
Minimum System Requirements
Getting Help
WebTrak Map Overview
Map Navigation
WebTrak provides replay of aircraft operations around the immediate area of the airport for the general public. WebTrak is capable of showing recent aircraft operations around the airport or ones from longer ago. It shows the path taken by aircraft and as much information about them as is permissible.
In addition to showing the aircraft operations, WebTrak is capable of showing measurements of noise taken by the airport at specific monitoring locations. These measurements can allow you to compare the noise made by aircraft operations in an area and whether particular operations have made unusual amounts of noise.
While every effort is made to ensure that the data is complete and accurate, WebTrak is not designed to be a detailed analysis system and it should not be used as such. (Please review the Terms of Use).
A number of simplifying assumptions have been made to make the display of the data to the general public practical. Data showing the current situation is captured raw and has not been subject to any clean up and auditing. For example aircraft tracks may look rougher when displayed on the current day. Furthermore some data sources are only available on a batch basis. These data feeds will supplement the data once nightly processing has occurred. There will be differences or corrections when nightly processing is done and the data has been reloaded into WebTrak. The historical data will always be more accurate than the current situation data.
Every effort is made to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the flight and track data presented in WebTrak. However flights may be missing due to security and safety restrictions, or temporary systems failures.
In addition, due to need to support the widest possible number of communications links and computer platforms, simplifications may be made in how the data is presented. WebTrak is not suitable for detailed geographical investigations of flight data.
If you are using a Windows-based PC to access WebTrak we recommend you use Internet Explorer version 6 (or later) and the Adobe SVG plugin version 3.03. Your computer should have the following minimum specifications:
Windows users may also use Firefox, though this will require the use of Windows 2000 or later and 64MB (preferably 128MB) of RAM.
If you are accessing WebTrak using an Intel-based Macintosh, we recommend using Opera version 9. Earlier Macintoshes can use Safari and the Adobe SVG plugin, but Safari must be run under Rosetta if you are using Mac OS X. Some site features may not work correctly under Safari.
To get help on items in WebTrak, try holding down the shift key on your keyboard, while clicking on an item. This help text will open located at an appropriate place, or at the table of contents if no specific help for that item exists.
WebTrak displays a map showing the area around the airport. Over this map you will see several 'floating' panels.
Click on a control name to get a detailed description of each panel.
There are three ways to zoom the WebTrak Map.
The zoom level bars will also show you the current zoom level. The current zoom level will be highlighted, with the rest of the bars a darker color.
Pan the map by using the pan controls situated above the zoom
buttons. The large buttons allow you to zoom North, South, East and
West.
The smaller buttons on the pan controls allow diagonal panning. These buttons allow panning North-West, North-East, South-West and South East.
When it is not possible to pan further in a direction the color of
the pan buttons will be slightly lighter. Nothing will happen if you click on
the button.
Reset the map by clicking the square in the middle of the pan controls. This will reset both the zoom and pan levels to the default view.
The map in WebTrak has a scale bar. The bar updates as you zoom in and out of the map to keep an integral number of units on its display. If the scale bar is not where you would like, it is possible to drag it out of the way by holding the left mouse button down and dragging it to where you want it.
You can use the playback controls (located by default at the bottom left of the map) to stop, start, pause, fast-forward and rewind the playback of flights.
The playback control's background is color-coded. It displays as green when the application is playing, red when stopped, and orange when paused.
The play button turns into a pause button when WebTrak is in play mode.
The fast-forward and rewind buttons work by changing the replay start time. To move the replay start time forward, use the fast-forward button. To move the replay start time back, use the rewind button. Note that when you click these buttons multiple times, the time change increases and the rate of change accelerates. Replay will begin again about a second after your last click.
If you are too close to the start of the available data, the rewind button will be disabled. If you are too close to the end of available data, the fast-forward button will be disabled.
Using the control panel you can set replay time and configure WebTrak's features.
Choose the "Live" tab and click the "Live Mode" button. To change back to a historical period, click the "Replay Mode" button, which will select the Replay tab for you so you can select a date and time.
The Replay section of the control panel contains all the options for selecting the date and time period for replay.
To select a date, click a date in the calendar. You can select a date, scroll forward or backward by month, or by year to choose a different date.
There are two ways to set the replay time.
To select the time using the time menus, simply select the time you want.
The 'Flights by Hour' graph gives you a visual display of how many flights are available for replay in each hour of the selected day. To use the 'Flights by Hour' graph, click the 'Flights by Hour' button to show the graph.
If you move your mouse over the bars in the graph you will see how many flights occurred in that hour.
If you click a bar in the graph, the corresponding hour will be selected for you in the time dropdown menu. You may then manually select a minute if you wish.
To return to the calendar display, click the 'Show Calendar' button.
Choose a speed from the speeds drop-down if you wish to accelerate replay.
Note that on slower computers, setting the replay speed to a higher value may cause problems with playback. If you encounter problems, such as the screen not updating or your computer becoming very slow, then try a lower replay speed.
When using accelerated replay your Internet connection must be able to support required multiple of the data rate of ordinary replay (i.e. 10 times replay requires 10 times the bandwidth). You may find that slow Internet connections are not able to support the required data rates for higher replay speeds.
Click the "Start Replay" button to start the replay at the selected time.
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Info tags are small translucent panels that follow an aircraft and display information about it. The aim of the info tag is to provide a simple summary of the most important information about the aircraft. You can find out what more WebTrak knows about the aircraft by opening an information panel.
The information shown in a info tag will vary depending on what WebTrak knows about the aircraft. It may include such items as
Moving your mouse over each item in the info tag will reveal a tooltip describing the field. (You cannot do this when you have used placing your mouse pointer over a single aircraft to show the info tag).
Choose the 'Options' tab in the control panel to reveal the 'Show Info Tags' option.
Selecting the "Show Info Tags" toggle will turn Info Tags on or off.
In addition to turning on info tags for all aircraft, it is also possible to place your mouse over an individual aircraft to show its info tag.
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Clicking on an aircraft will reveal a more detailed information panel. In addition to the information contained in the tags, the information panel may contain additional information such as the name of the aircraft type, the airline, and so on. Moving your mouse over each item in the panel will reveal a description of the data item using a tooltip.
The information panel's title bar will display the most descriptive unique identifier available for the aircraft.
The information panel will be displayed with a line connecting it to the icon in question. This line will move as the aircraft moves. The panel can be moved by clicking and dragging it to a new location. Several information panels may be opened at the one time.
The information panel may be resized by using the expand and shrink mini-tabs on the right hand side of the info panel.
Information displayed in the panel depends on the information that WebTrak has available. The following table explains the information that may be seen.
| Short Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Aircraft Type | A code that identifies the basic type of the aircraft. You can use this to look up more information about the aircraft (e.g. take off weight, number of passengers, engine type etc) |
| Altitude | The vertical position of the aircraft above mean sea level. This is only the same as the height above the ground level at the aircraft's current position, if the ground level is the same as sea level. |
| Arrives | The time that the flight is expected to arrive at its destination. |
| Beacon | A number that is used by the secondary surveillance radar to distinguish the aircraft that are operating in the airspace. |
| Destination | The code used by the airlines and air traffic control for the airport where this flight is going to. It is possible to look up the code to find out specific airport details. |
| Flight Id | An identifier used by airlines and air traffic control to identify the flight. |
| Origin | The code used by the airlines and air traffic control for the airport where this flight originated. It is possible to look up the code to find out specific airport details. |
| Tail Number | A unique registration number handed out by the country where the aircraft is registered. For some countries (e.g. the US and UK) it is possible to look up the aircraft owner and details using the tail number. |
Some of the information in the tags may be hyperlinked, which means you can click on them for more information. For instance, clicking on a hyperlinked Aircraft Type will open another window to an online aircraft database. From there you can search for the aircraft type for in-depth information on the model and type of aircraft. Hyperlinks will be colored purple and displayed with an underline.
Remove an information panel by clicking on the 'x' on the top right hand side of the panel.
Each flight track will have a particular icon to identify it. This icon will also be colored, based on the operation type and airport. The following table provides the details.
| Icon | Aircraft Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial Jet | A flight being flown by an airline using a jet aircraft. The aircraft may be carrying passengers or freight. | |
| Propeller aircraft | An aircraft with propellers rather than jet engines. Typically these will be smaller and slower aircraft. Often the aircraft will be operated by private individuals or corporations. | |
| Unknown type | WebTrak does not have sufficient information available to classify the operator or the type of aircraft. |
Each icon will have a color assigned to determine the type of operation. Icons will be colored depending on operation (arrival/departure) type, and also the origin airport.
Each icon will have a color assigned to determine the type of operation. Icons will be colored depending on operation (arrival/departure) type, and also the origin airport.
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Other airports | All |
The flight tracks (or tails) behind each aircraft icon will be colored depending on site configuration. In the default mode the tracks are the same color as the icon.
The airport has installed a number of Noise-Monitoring Terminals in the vicinity of the airport. The Noise-Monitoring Terminals (NMT) are used to get a measure of the noise impact caused by airport operations. The airport monitors the levels that are measured.
The human ear is able to distinguish a very wide range of noise levels. To make the numbers manageable the measurements are generally presented in decibels. You can find a long article discussing the decibels and bels on Wikipedia. Most importantly the article presents various commonly encountered noise sources and the decibel level you would expect to see for them. These comparisons will give you a feel for the noise levels that are being measured by the noise monitors and presented by WebTrak.
The noise measurements that WebTrak displays are the A-weighted sound exposure level taken over a one second period in decibels. From the point of view of using WebTrak it is the relative level of the measurements that are important.
However if you wish to explore the technical details then Wikipedia has an article explaining A-weighting and another explaining sound pressure level. From these pages you can find links to additional technical information about noise measurement.
A noise event is defined as an extended loud noise that is louder than a pre-defined level. The level is generally adjusted to match what people define as loud or 'noisy', and can change from day to night. Nights are quieter, so the 'trigger' level for a noise event may be lower. The trigger levels may also be set to take into account the background noise levels at the location. For example the threshold levels for a monitor near a busy road may be higher than in a quiet park.
The Noise and Flight Track Monitoring System classifies noise events into various ways.
| Classification | Description |
|---|---|
| Wind | The wind level is such that it is the dominant noise source |
| Aircraft | One or more aircraft appear to have made the noise event |
| Community | There appears to be no aircraft that could have caused the noise |
The noise-monitoring terminals (NMTs) measure the noise level to the nearest centibel. WebTrak simplifies its display by rounding the numbers to the nearest decibel.
NMTs are represented on the map as circles with the noise level in decibels displayed inside the circle.
In replay mode, the values shown in the NMTs are the LAE,T values that were measured during the event.
NMTs will change color, and may change shape, when a noise event is detected.
The meaning of the colors and shapes can be found in the legend below.
You must have turned on the noise-monitoring locations to see the measurements displayed. This is done by selecting the 'Show Noise Monitors' checkbox in the 'Options' tab of the control panel.
The noise monitors will be automatically turned off when in live mode, as real-time noise is not available at this airport.
If you move your mouse pointer over an NMT's icon on the map, you will see an info tag appear.
If you click on the NMT's icon the info tag will stay on screen after you move your mouse away from it, otherwise it will disappear when you move your mouse away. Click the NMT's icon once more to 'un-stick' the info tag.
Noise levels will cause the noise-monitor to change color gradually between the following color steps:
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| 90dB and above |
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The static track tab on the information panel allows you to review all of the track data that WebTrak has for a given flight track.
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On the edge of the information panel you will see the Static Track tab. Click on it to load this flight's track data.
While a static track is displayed, all other flights are removed from the map and replay is paused.
Click again on the Static Track tab to remove the static track data and restart normal replay.