Historical Flight Data

Overview

The following is a list of all EOSS flight data from recent years. Data is available in several formats:

• Comma separated values (*.csv)
• JavaScript Object Notation (*.json)
• Microsoft Excel (*.xlsx)
• Pandas - Python Pandas pickle format (*.pkl)

Details

Be sure to review the schema information at the bottom of this page as there are a number of columns included beyond those integral to the Ham Radio, APRS packet specification. In addition, make sure you're aware of how frequently telemetry data is collected, data quality issues, and similar topics by reviewing the data notes section.

The list of flights (similar to the list below) is also available in the following formats: csv, json, and excel.

Units

Current units are displayed in:
NOTE: Download files (ex. metadata, csv, json, excel, pandas) contain data in both Imperial and Metric units. There's no need to download data twice (ex. once for Metric and again for Imperial).

Schema Information

Column	Units	Notes
flightid	--	Flight ID (ex. EOSS-123)
callsign	--	Callsign of the beacon transmitting this packet
receivetime	timestamp	The timestamp the packet was added to the database on track.eoss.org
packettime	timestamp	The timestamp within the APRS position packet
altitude_ft	feet	Altitude in feet
altitude_m	meters	Altitude in meters
vert_rate_ftmin	feet/min	Vertical rate in ft/min
elapsed_secs	seconds	Total elapsed seconds for this phase of the flight (i.e. ascent, descent)
flight_phase	--	Ascending, descending
info	--	The information field of the APRS packet
raw	--	The raw APRS packet as ingested from APRS-IS
bearing	degrees	Bearing as reported degrees from North within the APRS position packet
speed_mph	miles/hour	The speed in MPH as reported within the APRS position packet
speed_kph	kilometers/hour	The speed in KPH as reported within the APRS position packet
latitude	decimal degrees	The latitude in decimal degrees as reported within the APRS position packet
longitude	decimal degrees	The longitude in decimal degreesas reported within the APRS position packet
distance_from_launch_mi	miles	The distance in miles from the launch location (i.e. usually from the first APRS packet heard for the flight) to the landing location (i.e. usually the last APRS packet heard from the flight)
distance_from_launch_km	kilometers	The distance in kilometers from the launch location (i.e. usually from the first APRS packet heard for the flight) to the landing location (i.e. usually the last APRS packet heard from the flight)
temperature_c	celsius degrees	The temperature in Celsius as reported from the beacon’s thermocouple sensor (if available)
temperature_f	fahrenheit degrees	The temperature in Fahrenheit as reported from the beacon’s thermocouple sensor (if available)
temperature_k	kelvins	The temperature in Kelvin as reported from the beacon’s thermocouple sensor (if available)
pressure_pa	pascals	The pressure in Pascals as reported from the beacon’s pressure sensor (if available)
pressure_atm	atmospheres	The pressure in Atmospheres as reported from the beacon’s pressure sensor (if available)
airdensity_slugs	slugs (lbf · s2/ft)	The air density (computed from the pressure and temperature values and assumes 1% relative humidity) in “slugs”.
airdensity_kgm3	kilograms/meter3	The air density (computed from the pressure and temperature values and assumes 1% relative humidity) in “kg/m3”.
velocity_x_degs	degrees/second	The horizontal, x-axis, velocity in longitude degrees per second.
velocity_y_degs	degrees/second	The horizontal, y-axis, velocity in latitude degrees per second.
velocity_z_fts	feet/second	The vertical, z-axis, velocity in feet per second.
velocity_z_ms	meters/second	The vertical, z-axis, velocity in meters per second.
airflow	--	The estimated airflow conditions. “high Re” = high Reynolds number environment (ex. Turbulent, lower drag). “low Re” = low Reynolds number environment (ex. Laminar, higher drag)
acceleration_fts2	feet/second2	The vertical, z-axis, acceleration (ft/s2)
velocity_mean_fts	feet/second	The running mean of the z-axis velocity (ft/s). (I.e. vertical rate)
acceleration_mean_fts2	feet/second2	The running mean of the z-axis acceleration (ft/s2) (i.e. vertical acceleration)
velocity_std_fts	feet/second	The running standard deviation of the z-axis velocity
acceleration_std_fts2	feet/second2	The running standard deviation of the z-axis acceleration (ft/s2)
velocity_norm_fts	standard deviations	The normalized z-axis velocity in standard deviations (of imperial velocity values).
acceleration_norm_fts2	standard deviations	The normalized z-axis acceleration in standard deviations (of imperial acceleration values).
velocity_curvefit_fts	feet/second	The curve-fitted, smoothed, z-axis velocity value (ft/s)
acceleration_ms2	meters/second2	The vertical, z-axis, acceleration (m/s2)
velocity_mean_ms	meters/second	The running mean of the z-axis velocity (m/s). (I.e. vertical rate)
acceleration_mean_ms2	meters/second2	The running mean of the z-axis acceleration (m/s2) (i.e. vertical acceleration)
velocity_std_ms	meters/second	The running standard deviation of the z-axis velocity (m/s)
acceleration_std_ms2	meters/second2	The running standard deviation of the z-axis acceleration (m/s2)
velocity_norm_ms	standard deviations	The normalized z-axis velocity in standard deviations (of metric velocity values).
acceleration_norm_ms2	standard deviations	The normalized z-axis acceleration in standard deviations (of metric acceleration values).
velocity_curvefit_ms	meters/second	The curve-fitted, smoothed, z-axis velocity value (m/s)
reynolds_transition	--	Denotes if a data point has been marked as the average point where airflow around the flight (i.e. the balloon, etc.) is transitioning (ex. Reynolds numbers for the airflow are transitioning from high_to_low or low_to_high). A lack of data (i.e. null, etc.) in this field indicates no transition has been detected for this data point.

Data Notes

1. Data Point Frequency: All data points are roughly 30 seconds apart as that’s how frequently the redundant beacons on each flight transmit telemetry information. However, all ascent packets for a given flight will have data from from all beacons on that flight included and sorted according to timestamp so the packet list is nice and uniform. The same applies to packets for the decent portion of each flight.
2. Only Valid Positions: These datasets only include data points that originate from APRS position packets and then, only those that have valid latitude, longitude, and altitude values. Any sort of malformed position data that might have been transmitted by a flight beacon (i.e. perhaps because of a lack of GPS lock), have been excluded from the data sets.
3. Additional Columns: There are a lot of columns added beyond just what was transmitted as part of the Ham Radio, APRS packet spec. These are mostly computed values (ex. velocities and accelerations), but also include decoded items like temperature and pressure that the flight beacons report through an EOSS specific format included within the comment section of individual APRS packets.
4. Statistical Values: Statistical columns are added for motion values (ex. velocity, acceleration, etc) and include running means, standard deviations, and normalizations. In this context, “running” means that for a specific packet, the mean, std, norm values are computed based on all packets heard up to that point.
5. Units: Data files (ex. csv, excel, pandas, json) include fields with both imperial and metric units - it's the same data, but provided to save the end user time/trouble in converting from one to another.
6. Timestamps: Timestamps for the receivetime and packettime columns within JSON data files are in ISO8601 format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.SSS.
7. Missing Data Points: Unfortunately there are a small number of flights that only have partial packet data available - if an APRS packet wasn't igated in the field then those data points obviously won't be included in the data sets.
8. Airflow: Typically EOSS flights experience a higher velocity during the early stages of a flight then transition to a lower velocity about half-way through the ascent due to higher drag on the surface of the balloon as it expands at higher altitudes. These two conditions are noted within the "airflow" column as "high Re" and "low Re" respectively referring to lower and higher Reynolds numbers. Airflow that is more laminar results in higher surface drag and slows the ascent rate of the balloon and is characterized as having low Reynolds numbers. Airflow that is more turbulent results in lower surface drag and relatively higher balloon ascent velocities and is characterized as having higher Reynolds numbers. For the purposes of this data set, these conditions are estimated by determining how far above or below the average vertical ascent rate a given data point is. For example, if a data point shows higher z-axis velocity compared to the average for the entire ascent portion of the flight then it is assumed that the airflow around the balloon is causing less drag. Conversely, for below average z-axis velocities, it is then assumed that the balloon is experiencing more laminar airflow and thus higher drag.
9. Launch/Landing Locations: The launch and landing locations are determined by using the first and last APRS packets available respectively with the distances between the two computed in miles and kilometers. In some instances, however, an incomplete list of APRS packets for a flight was igated to APRS-IS, which unfortunately results in an inacurate representation for the launch and landing locations. For example, flight EOSS-343 shows a landing location and altitude of 14,000ft (4267m). As exciting as that might sound, the flight didn't actually land on the summit of a Colorado 14er! In the case of EOSS-343, as the flight approached landing, packets transmitted by its beacons were never igated to APRS-IS and consequently are not available within the dataset on this site.