Using MobilityDB and Grafana for Aviation Trajectory Analysis

Abstract

Air traffic management (ATM) requires the handling big data of moving objects, such as flight trajectories. There is, however, a lack of specialized tools for trajectory-data management, where the spatiotemporal data are first class citizens. Instead, specialized algorithms for trajectory-data management are built on top of existing geospatial tools. In this paper, we showcase MobilityDB, which is an open-source database for moving objects. MobilityDB is developed as an extension to PostgreSQL and PostGIS that specializes in the storage and processing of trajectory data. Its data model integrates spatiotemporal and temporal types as first class citizens in the database. It thus allows one to perform complex spatial and spatiotemporal queries. This paper presents how to combine MobilityDB with Grafana, an open-source dashboard tool, to perform basic and advanced queries and interact with Grafana visualization. A use case for flight trajectories, based on the OpenSky Network data, is illustrated.

Keywords

• moving objects
• MobilityDB
• Grafana
• open source
• dashboard