Type of site | Monitoring of aircraft |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Headquarters |  Burgdorf, Switzerland |
| Country of origin | Switzerland |
| Owner | OpenSky Network Association |
| URL | OpenSky-Network.org |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Free |
| Launched | 2015 |
| Current status | Active |
The OpenSky Network is a non-profit association based in Switzerland that provides open access of flight tracking control data.[1] It was set up as a research project by several universities and government entities with the goal to improve the security, reliability and efficiency of the airspace. Its main function is to collect, process and store air traffic control data and provide open access to this data to the public. Similar to many existing flight trackers such as Flightradar24 and FlightAware, the OpenSky Network consists of a multitude of sensors (currently around 2000,[2] mostly concentrated in Europe and the US), which are connected to the Internet by volunteers, industrial supporters, academic, and governmental organizations.[3] All collected raw data is archived in a large historical database, containing over 23 trillion air traffic control messages (November 2020). The database is primarily used by researchers from different areas to analyze and improve air traffic control technologies and processes.
The main air traffic control communication technologies currently used by the OpenSky Network are the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), Mode S and since late 2018 also FLARM. All technologies provide immediate and detailed aircraft information over the publicly accessible 1090 MHz radio frequency channel using software-defined radio receivers.