Exploring spatial patterns of overflights at Badlands National Park
Peterson BA, Hutchinson JS, Gurung B, Beeco JA , Joyce D. 2024. Exploring spatial patterns of overflights at Badlands National Park. Science Report. NPS/SR—2024/115. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/2303602
This study explored spatial patterns of overflights at Badlands National Park (BADL). Overflights were analyzed from July 13, 2022 to August 27, 2022 (46 days) using Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data. There were 26 days of data and 20 days of missing data due to technical difficulties with the ADS-B logger. The first phase of analysis focused on all overflights and found overflights above most areas of BADL. The second phase of analysis focused on low-level overflights that fly below 7,000ft mean sea level (MSL) and fly within 10-miles of the BADL boundary, which found a concentration of flights between 4,000 - 7,000 feet MSL near the eastern boundary of BADL. The third phase of analysis removed all overflights known not to be air tours. Figures were produced that display all the flights of the cleaned dataset, waypoints across AGL altitudes, waypoints across MSL altitudes, flightpaths for fixed wing single engine, flightpaths for rotorcraft, flight paths for fixed wing multi engine, and flightpaths for specific air tour operators. This information can be used for planning and management purposes and this study serves as a resource for future research.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Peterson, Brian; Hutchinson, J. M.; Gurung, Bijan; Beeco, J.; Joyce, Damon
- Date of Issue
- 2024-05
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- DOI
- 10.36967/2303602
- Units
- BADL , NRSS , NSNSD
- Keywords
- ADS-B, Air tours, Aircraft, Overflights