ADS-B coverage and its limits
AeroScope leverages a worldwide network of community-operated ADS-B receivers. Those networks reach six continents, though density varies enormously and large areas have none.
Coverage overview
ADS-B coverage depends on ground-based receivers operated by aviation enthusiasts and community networks around the world. Each receiver can detect aircraft within approximately 200-300 nautical miles, depending on antenna height, local terrain, and atmospheric conditions. By aggregating data from thousands of receivers across multiple networks and refreshing positions on a roughly 7-second cycle, AeroScope sees whatever those aggregators see, which is dense over populated land and thin elsewhere.
Regional coverage
North America
Excellent coverage across the continental United States and southern Canada, driven by a dense network of community receivers and strong ADS-B adoption following the 2020 FAA mandate. Coverage is comprehensive in the eastern and western corridors, with some gaps in sparsely populated areas of the Mountain West and northern Canada.
EUROPE
Outstanding coverage across Western and Central Europe, Scandinavia, and the British Isles. The adsb.fi network has particularly strong coverage in Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Dense population centers across Germany, France, the UK, and the Benelux countries provide near-complete coverage. Eastern Europe has growing but less dense coverage.
Asia-Pacific
Good coverage in Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, and coastal Australia. Growing coverage in India and China. Island nations and open-ocean routes across the Pacific have little to no coverage: AeroScope has no satellite ADS-B feed, so tracking there depends entirely on ground receivers near land.
MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA
Moderate coverage in the Middle East (UAE, Israel, Turkey) and North Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa has limited coverage concentrated around major airports and population centers. Coverage is expanding as more enthusiasts contribute receivers to community networks in these regions.
South America
Growing coverage in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. Urban areas and major airports have good coverage, while remote areas of the Amazon basin and Patagonia have limited ground-based receiver presence. The community network continues to expand across the continent.
Oceanic routes
Ground-based ADS-B receivers cannot reach mid-ocean, and AeroScope has no satellite feed to fill that gap, unlike commercial services built on Aireon's space-based ADS-B. Transatlantic, transpacific and polar routes drop off the map once they pass beyond receiver range of the nearest landmass, and reappear only as they approach the next coastline.
Our data sources
AeroScope uses a tiered source architecture with multi-source fusion confidence scoring. Primary sources provide the core data feed, extended sources add wider geographic reach, and optional paid sources fill remaining gaps.
Primary Sources
ADSB.FI (PRIMARY)
A community-driven ADS-B network with roots in Finland. Known for particularly strong coverage across Scandinavia and Europe, with a growing global receiver network. Provides high-quality, low-latency data through a well-maintained infrastructure. Open and community-focused with no commercial filtering. This is AeroScope's primary data source, polled at least every 1.1 seconds to stay within its documented 1 request-per-second limit.
ADSB.LOL (PRIMARY)
A global ADS-B mirror network providing broad worldwide coverage. Aggregates data from community receivers across all continents. Serves as the second primary source, enabling cross-validation between adsb.fi and adsb.lol for spoof detection. When both sources agree on an aircraft's position, confidence scoring is elevated.
Extended Coverage Sources
AIRPLANES.LIVE (DISABLED)
AeroScope previously queried airplanes.live with an expanded geographic bounding box to catch aircraft at the edges of the primary coverage area. That feed is paused while we wait for the network's permission to use it, so it contributes nothing today.
OPENSKY NETWORK (EXTENDED)
An academic research network based at the University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland. OpenSky provides global coverage with historical data archives. AeroScope uses OpenSky as a global gap-filler and for cross-validation of aircraft positions reported by other sources.
Optional Paid Sources
ADS-B EXCHANGE (RAPIDAPI)
For deployments requiring maximum coverage, AeroScope optionally supports ADS-B Exchange via the RapidAPI marketplace. That would give access to one of the largest unfiltered ADS-B networks, with no military or government filtering. It is not switched on: no API key is configured, so ADS-B Exchange contributes nothing to what you see here today. Aircraft it reports go through the same confidence-scoring system described below, on equal footing with the community sources.
Multi-Source Fusion Confidence Scoring
When the same aircraft (matched by its ICAO 24-bit hex address) is reported by more than one source, AeroScope does not blend the positions together, it keeps the most recent well-formed message and layers on a separate 0-to-1 confidence score built from six weighted factors: how many independent networks corroborate the aircraft (full credit at 3 or more), how tightly those networks agree on position (full credit within 0.5 NM, partial credit out to 2.0 NM), whether the registration is verified, ACARS correlation, historical route match, and data-field completeness. The result is graded A through F, and single-source aircraft score lower simply because that first factor contributes nothing. Separately, the spoof detector treats a cross-source position disagreement of more than 1.0 NM between two feeds inside a 15-second window as its own integrity signal, distinct from the confidence grade.
IMPROVE COVERAGE: SET UP YOUR OWN RECEIVER
Anyone can contribute to global ADS-B coverage by setting up their own receiver. It is surprisingly affordable and straightforward:
What You Need
- RTL-SDR USB dongle: a software-defined radio receiver, approximately $25-35
- 1090 MHz antenna: a tuned antenna for the ADS-B frequency, $10-30
- Raspberry Pi (or similar): a small computer to run the receiver software, $35-60
- SD card and power supply: standard Raspberry Pi accessories, $10-15
Total cost: approximately $40-140 depending on the components you choose. Many ready-to-go kits are available from retailers that include everything needed. Placement matters: the higher you can mount the antenna (rooftop, attic, upper floor window), the better your coverage radius will be. A well-placed antenna at 30 feet elevation can typically see aircraft out to 200+ nautical miles.
Once running, you can feed your data to community networks like adsb.fi, adsb.lol, and others, directly contributing to the global coverage that platforms like AeroScope depend on.