# How ADS-B Tracks Aircraft in Flight

**URL:** <https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/how-ads-b-tracks-aircraft-in-flight/1456>\
**Category:** Continuity\
**Tags:** radar, aviation, ads-b, transponders\
**Created:** [31 May 2022 12:11 UTC](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/how-ads-b-tracks-aircraft-in-flight/1456 "2022-05-31T12:11:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![johnwalker](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/user_avatar/scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/johnwalker/32/17415_2.png) [@johnwalker](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/u/johnwalker)\
**Post date:** [31 May 2022 12:11 UTC](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/how-ads-b-tracks-aircraft-in-flight/1456/1 "2022-05-31T12:11:07Z")

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[![](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/uploads/default/original/2X/9/9b6fec58b45574c9dd7b5fb85e26af4471b8761b.jpeg "Why Most Planes Don't Need RADAR Tracking Any More") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkowxHF8g3M)

Here is more about [ADS-B](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Dependent_Surveillance%E2%80%93Broadcast) (Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast), now installed on most large aircraft in the developed world and increasingly mandated for flight in controlled airspace. It not only provides information to controllers (and anybody else who wants to set up a receiver) on the ground, but also provides pilots situational awareness of other ADS-B equipped aircraft in their vicinity without any reliance upon ground infrastructure.

The hardware and software that Scott Manley used to set up his own ADS-B ground station is the [1090MHz PiAware ADS-B Kit](https://flightaware.store/) from the FlightAware Store. Here are [instructions for installing a station](https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/build/). The software that runs on the Raspberry Pi Zero is [PiAware](https://github.com/flightaware/piaware), available from GitHub, which uses [Dump1090](https://github.com/antirez/dump1090), also on GitHub, to decode the ADS-B data stream.