Been following some aircraft over NYC, which show up only via a spotty TIS-B source on the ADSBx website; occasionally disappearing from the website altogether. They fly in circles for a few hours and then leave. I've gotten eyes on them- small Cessnas I believe. Always between 4500-6000ft. Can someone explain to me why this aircraft is only showing up on TIS-B, as opposed to MLAT in this situation? It's extremely rare to see aircraft here in NYC airspace with no ident available on the ADSBx website. Screenshot attached. Share function is useless as far as I know, unfortunately, without a valid ident. Certainly wild to see!
I've seen this several times and been wondering the same. It always circles over Brooklyn, like you said, for hours. But I have no idea what it is.
Hey Matt, I've done a fair bit of research in the few weeks since making this post. The short story, as far as I know: These aircraft must be getting an official clearance to overfly NYC without identifying themselves publicly, and their paths do seem to be signatures of surveillance aircraft. They're TIS-B targets instead of MLAT because of the type of transponder they're using- one which can't broadcast any ident information. I'd be happy to compare notes or try to answer some questions if you want to talk further. I've documented quite a few of these over the city in the last month.
Nice. You’ve gathered allot info! I don’t really have any more useful notes on this than you’ve already posted. But I do plan on taking out my 400mm lens on the camera next time I’m home while this is going on. Maybe I can get some info. I’ll post results here. It almost always passes by within sight of my place.
