Polar Diagram - how is it calculated?

Dean · October 20, 2009, 07:23:48 PM

Can anyone tell me what the criteria is in Radarbox for the creation of the polar diagram. Does a certain number of flights have to be in range for a certain time etc? Just keep seeing the odd flight at a distance outside my plotted range but they don't increase the polar diagram.

bratters · October 20, 2009, 07:29:18 PM

Strange that Dean. You should be able to follow an individual flight and watch it extending the boundaries of your polar diag. Each spike of the diagram is set by a single flight, either outbound or inbound.

Fenris · October 20, 2009, 08:12:03 PM

Which version of RB are you using? There's something not quite right about the polar diagram in the 3.0x betas....

Dean · October 20, 2009, 09:10:29 PM

Currently using 3.07 beta but it's been like that for a while (not sure how far back).

The flights will be showing a realistic origin / destination but may only show up for 20/30/40 seconds.

I am in a poor locus surrounded by hills so onlyexpect to pick up flights in most directions above a certain alt. The ones I've been seeing pop up are at 30K+ feet so again seem realistic - just that RB isn't extending the polar plot.

AirNav Support · October 20, 2009, 09:15:24 PM

Do you have the polar plot when these appear? Turn the polar plot off and then back on again.

Dean · October 20, 2009, 09:16:22 PM

Follow up-

Just reset and watching. Flights which are obviously giving a continuous update are creating a polar pattern. Those at the 'fringes' not so.

Does this also mean that the polar pattern is non discriminatory - i.e if it picks up a flight 50 km east of my locus @ 35k feet then that is no guarantee that a similar flight at say 30k will be displayed i.e it's below my line of sight.

Dean · October 20, 2009, 09:28:24 PM

Thanks so far. just reset my polar plot and watching it grow in real time.

As can be seen from the attached a new flight has appeared which lasted a few seconds (say 15) then disappeared.

The flight from LEMG to EGNT is on a viable flight path and is now well within my receeivers range and en course so it wasn't a fluke or a mis read signal. It just seems that polar plot wasn't added to.

AirNav Support · October 20, 2009, 09:34:02 PM

Not sure what you mean, are you saying that aircraft was being recieved perfectly fine, as we can't see trial behind it which explains the polar plots going back and forth as if your only getting the aircraft signal in a few areas.

Fenris · October 20, 2009, 10:04:47 PM

I think he means that EZY6408 over mid Wales has a number of trail dots behind it but is not at the edge of the polar pattern in that direction. My experience is that if even one point appears after the location is received it causes the polar diagram to extend to that point, at least in v2.01. It's been a bit less certain in 3.0x releases, and the drawing also shows lines inside the plot edges on occasions.

AirNav Support · October 20, 2009, 10:12:40 PM

That is a network flight. The polar diagram is working fine from what we can see.

Dean · October 21, 2009, 06:15:44 AM

Fenris is correct with the flight I was referring to. It's not a network flight as I had only hardware flights selected. I've attached another screen grab. As can be seen UAL906 is over South Wales but hasn't extended the radar plot to include it. The flight is showing in mylog as below:

AA6E81 UAL906 KSFO-KORD-EDDM N771UA B772 United Airlines 2009/10/21 06:11:28

Fenris · October 21, 2009, 08:27:07 AM

Quote from: AirNav Support on October 20, 2009, 10:12:40 PM
That is a network flight. The polar diagram is working fine from what we can see.

If it were a network flight, should it not be displaying a * after the flight ID? I don't see one.

On the other hand, the trail points are quite spread out, so might it be that for some reason the * is not being displayed? The OP states that he was not running the network though, so maybe he just has an intermittent track on this aircraft.

tarbat · October 21, 2009, 08:45:53 AM

Quote from: Fenris on October 21, 2009, 08:27:07 AMIf it were a network flight, should it not be displaying a * after the flight ID? I don't see one.

Perhaps he's turned the "*" off in Preferences.

These are ALL network flights, but I wouldn't expect the polar diagram to include them.

EK01 · October 21, 2009, 09:22:24 AM

From my viewings, if an aircraft 'hits' the polar diagram on the side, it very often will not move it. More often than not, the aircraft will have to 'hit' the polar diagram on the actual tip of the spike in order to extend it. Also, if an aircraft is at low altitude it will be picked up on the map but will not cause any movement on the polar diagram by, most likely, timing out before it reaches it. Therefore the higher altitude of the aircraft flight level plus a direct 'hit' on the polar diagram the better.

Fenris · October 21, 2009, 02:12:42 PM

Tarbat - good point, I'd forgotten about the preference for the *, but then the OP does say that he was using only the hardware not the network.

EK01 - I'm not certain of what you're saying, but my view is that if even a single position fix is received then that position should be part of the polar plot. It doesn't matter that the aircraft may have timed out without being tracked further.