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Let's suppose I only have an ADS-B receiver.

I want to detect aircrafts landing at the receiver's location, and estimate the time they will take to land.

What would be the most reliable way to perform that estimation?

I can use the ground speed and baro rate if they are available, but I've seen that the baro/geom rate is often not available in the ADS-B messages.

Estimating the horizontal/vertical velocities from positions is not reliable (see Why does ADS-B broadcast velocity?).

What piece of information can I reasonably assemble from ADS-B data only?

Enrico Detoma
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  • What is the time accuracy you need to achieve? Are the aircraft landing at an airport? – DeltaLima Mar 23 '23 at 19:37
  • @DeltaLima I should try to detect aircrafts trying to land at a location 5-10 minutes before they land. No real need for time accuracy. Not necessarily at an airport. – Enrico Detoma Mar 23 '23 at 21:48
  • So you have a location, that isn't necessarily a runway, and you want to know 5-10 minutes beforehand that an aircraft is going to land there, yes? Since "mind reading" is beyond the scope of ADS-B (and any other known technology), what data to you believe could tell you that far in advance that an aircraft will be landing there, as opposed to just flying past? With good position/velocity data, you could note that an aircraft is on course to fly near your position, but until they commit to landing there - well within 5 minutes of actual landing, in many cases - "near" is all you can know. – Ralph J Mar 25 '23 at 19:38
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    "Estimating the horizontal/vertical velocities from positions is not reliable" actually in your case the mean velocity from position is more useful than the Doppler instantaneous velocity from the GPS. Build a simple Kalman filter to predict the landing time or use a one from a library. More. – mins Apr 05 '23 at 16:37
  • @mins interesting suggestion to use the Kalman filter. My purpose is for turning on landing lights, so, for answering Ralph J considerations, it's better to turn on lights one once more rather than once less. – Enrico Detoma Apr 06 '23 at 19:59

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