flightradar24.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

from __future__ import division
import requests
import json
import datetime


__all__ = ['get_historical', 'get_recent', 'get_current', \
           'TIME_RES_HISTORICAL', 'TIME_RES_CURRENT', 'FIELDS', 'FIELDS_EXTRA']

FIELDS = 'icao_addr', 'lat', 'long', 'track', 'alt', 'speed', 'squawk', 'radar', \
         'type', 'reg_num', 'time_epoch', 'src', 'dest', 'flight_num', 'unknown1', \
         'vert_speed', 'callsign', 'unknown2'
# unknown1 sometimes == '1', usually == '0'
FIELDS_EXTRA = 'time', 'id'

URL_JSON_CURRENT = "http://db8.flightradar24.com/zones/{zone_name}.js"
URL_JSON_HISTORICAL = 'http://db.flightradar24.com/playback/%Y%m%d/%H%M00.js'

TIME_RES_HISTORICAL = datetime.timedelta(minutes=1)
TIME_RES_CURRENT = datetime.timedelta(seconds=12) # estimated

# multiplicative factors to convert to SI units
CONV_KT_TO_MPS = 0.514444444
CONV_FPM_TO_MPS = 5.08e-3
CONV_FT_TO_M = 0.3048


def load_url(url, convert=True):
    '''
    Load and parse flight data from given Flightradar24 data URL.
    `convert` parameter will convert all values to SI when True.
    Returns an iterator yielding dictionaries with flight information.
    '''
    content = requests.get(url).content

    # delete JS to make text valid JSON
    content = content.replace('pd_callback(', '')
    content = content.replace('fetch_playback_cb(', '')
    content = content.replace(');', '')

    # replace emply strings so Python gives us None's
    content = content.replace('""', 'null')

    json_data = json.loads(content)

    # delete unused fields
    version = json_data.pop('version')
    full_count = json_data.pop('full_count')

    for identifier, fields in json_data.items():
        # convert unicode to strings to avoid issues later on
        fields = [f.encode('utf-8') if isinstance(f, unicode) else f for f in fields]

        f = dict(zip(FIELDS, fields))
        f['id'] = identifier.encode('utf-8')

        # convert units to SI
        if convert:
            f['time'] = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(f['time_epoch'])
            f['speed'] *= CONV_KT_TO_MPS
            f['alt'] *= CONV_FT_TO_M
            f['vert_speed'] *= CONV_FPM_TO_MPS

        yield f

def get_historical(date_start, date_stop, step=TIME_RES_HISTORICAL, convert=True):
    '''
    Get flight records between `date_start` and `date_stop` (both `datetime` objects).
    `step` is the desired increment and defaults to the (estimated) Flightradar24 resolution.
    Returns an iterator.
    '''

    if date_stop < date_start:
        raise Exception('stop date is before start date')

    date_cur = date_start

    while date_cur < date_stop:
        url = date_cur.strftime(URL_JSON_HISTORICAL)

        for f in load_url(url, convert=convert):
            yield f

        date_cur += step

def get_recent(time_span, step=TIME_RES_HISTORICAL, convert=True):
    '''
    Get flight records going back `time_span` (`timedelta` object) to current date.
    `step` is the desired increment and defaults to the estimated Flightradar24 resolution.
    Returns an iterator.
    '''
    stop = datetime.datetime.now()
    start = stop - time_span

    return get_historical(start, stop, step=step, convert=convert)

def get_current(zone_name='full', use_faa=True, convert=True):
    '''
    Get most recent flight records for zone `zone_name`.
    `use_faa` will include FAA datasources.
    Returns an iterator.
    '''
    if use_faa and not zone_name.endswith('_all'):
        zone_name += '_all'

    url = URL_JSON_CURRENT.format(zone_name=zone_name)

    return load_url(url, convert=convert)

def main():
    zone = 'full'

    data_gen = get_current(zone)
    flights = list(data_gen)

    print '{} current global flight records'.format(len(flights))

    span = datetime.timedelta(minutes=10)
    data_gen = get_recent(span)

    print 'sample global flight records for last 10 minutes:'

    for i in range(10):
        print data_gen.next()

    print '...'


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()