Data sources and credits

Where SkyCheck's weather, airspace and map data come from.

Weather

Weather data by Open-Meteo.com, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Wind, temperature, precipitation, cloud and visibility forecasts.

Measured wind

Airport weather observations (METAR) from the NOAA Aviation Weather Center (public domain, U.S. Government). Measured near the ground at the airport, so they can differ from conditions at your spot and altitude.

Lightning

Lightning flashes from NOAA's GOES-East and GOES-West Geostationary Lightning Mappers (public domain, U.S. Government), via the NOAA Open Data Dissemination program on AWS. Satellites can miss some strikes and report others a minute or two late.

Radar

Weather radar (MRMS base reflectivity) from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction (public domain, U.S. Government), covering the last hour. Future radar is NOAA's HRRR model simulated reflectivity for the next 4 hours, a forecast rather than a measurement, served by the Iowa Environmental Mesonet at Iowa State University. SkyCheck smooths both images and hides the faintest returns. Both cover the lower 48 states.

Buildings

Building outlines and heights © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License (ODbL), via the Overpass API. Where a height isn't mapped, SkyCheck estimates it from the kind of building. The wind around buildings is SkyCheck's illustration based on common rules of thumb, not a measurement or a simulation.

Space weather

Planetary K-index observations and forecast from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (public domain, U.S. Government).

Satellite orbits

GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou orbital elements from CelesTrak. Visible-satellite counts are SkyCheck's own estimates.

Airspace

Class airspace, special use airspace, national security UAS flight restrictions, UAS facility map (LAANC grid), temporary flight restriction and NOTAM data from the Federal Aviation Administration. Not an official FAA product.

Maps

On iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, maps and place search by Apple Maps. On Android, maps by Google Maps, and place search by your device's geocoder (usually Google).

Drone specifications

Drone names and brands are trademarks of their owners and are used only to identify the aircraft. SkyCheck isn't affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any drone manufacturer. Specs come from published sources, may be out of date, and can differ from your aircraft.