When Nancy Pelosi’s plane landed in Taiwan, more than 345,000 people tracked it online. The ADS-B satellite monitoring system helped them in this.
People tracked Nancy Pelosi over the internet
During the flight of the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the US Congress Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, the FlightRadar24 website noted the unprecedented sustained interest of users in tracking one of the aircraft. It had the identifier SPAR19.
On the evening of August 2, GMT+3, more than 345 thousand users followed this aircraft, according to this website specializing in satellite monitoring of air traffic. This is not surprising, because it was on it that American policy conducted a visit, regarding which there were fears that it would cause a direct military conflict between the United States and China.
The Boeing C-40C of the US Air Force landed without any problems on the territory of an independent state, the existence of which is still not recognized by many countries. And after a while, Pelosi flew back to the states. And tens of thousands of interested persons around the world were able to verify this with the help of a system using data from GPS satellites.
Satellite aircraft tracking system
Tracking Pelosi’s plane became possible thanks to the Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast system, or ADS-B. It uses GPS satellite data to create an overall picture of what is happening in the air.
Previously, dispatchers around the world used radar data to control air traffic. However, in 2013, the European Space Agency certified ADS-B for use and this not only increased the accuracy of aircraft positioning, but also allowed people around the world to track flights of interest to them.
According to representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration, the use of satellite data made it possible to safely organize a much closer approach of aircraft than it was before. Thanks to this, air traffic has significantly accelerated. In addition, the use of ADS-B made it possible to organize it in places where there has never been continuous radar coverage.
According to www.space.com
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