Category: News

Just before the summer holidays we organized a calibration day with a large number of volunteers to find out to what extent the measurements with the free Explane app correspond to the real noise level. On average, Explane appears to deviate only 2 dB from a calibrated dB meter.

Explane.org and SchipholWatch are very happy with these results, especially since the measurements with Explane now appear to be more reliable than the calculations by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure & Water Management and those of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

‘6 dB is within expected margins’
As a reminder: the measurements of a test flight mid-last year (‘experience flight’) were sometimes as much as 6 dB higher than the previously calculated values. The minister, Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, called this deviation “well within the expected margins”. Read more >

Since a few weeks our app shows an error warning from Google Maps. We will soon repair this. The warning does NOT affect the functionality of the app, so you can keep sending us your noise registrations.

The warning is actually very positive news. It tells us that our period of free use of Google Maps is over. We now have to pay for the use. This is a direct result of the wide and intensive use of the app. When we started it, we did not expect so many users and so many registrations in such a short period.

We now already have 70,000 registrations of aviation noise in our database. A technical university in The Netherlands will research the data, and we are invited to insert the Explane-data in a ‘civic science’ project of the Dutch health research institute. Read more >

Yesterday evening we have started a petition to stop growth at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Do you also want a cap on further growth? Please sign our petition!

You can find the petition (in Dutch) at https://petities.nl/petitions/nee-tegen-groei-van-schiphol.

Within 24 hours it has been signed by (almost) a thousand people, most of them residents of communities that are terrorised by aviation noise and pollution.

Please sign the petition and share this message by visiting https://cms.explane.org.

As a user of this app Explane, you might ask yourself: what do they do with all those registrations? We publish them! At https://reports.explane.org.

Please take a look at that brand new site. Together we already made over 40.000 of aviation noise measurements (as of June 28th, 2019).

At the site you can zoom in to the data that is important for your community. You can easily make screen shots and you are free to publish them on your own site, your social media account or via e-mail to send to your local politicians or press.

Please make use of this wealthy source of information. For now, it’s our only alternative to the crooky calculations from the aviation industry. Read more >

At this moment our app Explane reports more often than normal that there is no plane to be found in the noise that you tried to capture.

The reason for this is that work is being done on the database that supplies the aircraft data to Explane. The Open Sky Network – supplier of this information – is working on improvements to its systems.

The network reported this a few days ago via Twitter:

Just a note that the tracks part of our API is under maintenance for a while to make some necessary improvements. You can always use flights for most intents and purposes: https://t.co/bR34IB9T0p

— OpenSky Network (@OpenSkyNetwork) June 14, 2019

Unfortunately we do not know how long this maintenance will take. We do hope to be able to inform you as soon as possible if the systems are running as usual (or better)!

We hope for some consideration from your site. Unfortunately the cause is beyond our control. Read more >

UN Environment published an unusually stark critique of carbon offsetting on Monday. On Tuesday, the article was taken down, following queries by Climate Home News.

In the original article, archived by the Wayback Machine, a climate specialist at the UN organisation warned against considering carbon offsets as “our get-out-jail-free card”.

“The era of carbon offsets is drawing to a close,” Niklas Hagelberg wrote. “Buying carbon credits in exchange for a clean conscience while you carry on flying, buying diesel cars and powering your home with fossil fuels is no longer acceptable or widely accepted.” Read more >

We are regularly asked whether there is no way to continuously measure aircraft noise and to record the data in the database of our app Explane.

We had a look around on the internet and soon came to the conclusion that this is not very difficult. For example, at Raspberry Pi Geek you will find a fairly complete description for converting the microcomputer into a continuous sound meter.

The costs of such a continuous measurement system can be quite low. For 25 euros you can buy a Raspberri Pi, for another 100 to 150 euros an accurate dB-meter (for example from Peak Tech) with a USB connection that is needed to connect the meter to the computer. Read more >

In our app we show relevant news articles, but in the current version you cannot share these articles with your friends. Please visit https://cms.explane.org to read the articles in your browser and share them via Facebook, Twitter or Whatsapp!

Recently we published posts about an EU citizen’s initiative to tax aviation fuel, about the availability of our new website Aviation Noise Reports by Explane and about the first real results from the app.

As of today you can sign a EU citizens’ initiative that calls for taxation of aviation fuels. We only need 1 million votes together in all EU nation states.

“We call the European Commission to propose to member states the introduction of a tax on aviation fuel (kerosene). The aviation sector enjoys tax advantages despite being one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions”, says its site.

“While greener alternatives to aviation are subject to high taxes, the aviation industry benefits from many unjust tax exemptions. Aviation fuel remains untaxed in Europe and Member States don’t impose VAT on plane tickets, making aviation a more and more attractive transport mode whereas it is the most carbon-intensive.” Read more >

One of the uncertainties of the Explane-data is how precise can we measure aviation noise levels with a smartphone. To quantify those uncertainties we will organise a calibration day in the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport region on June 29th, 2019.

On this day under supervision of the Dutch Noise Abatement Society (Nederlandse Stichting Geluidshinder, https://nsg.nl) we will test as much smartphones as possible against a calibrated noise meter.

Bring your phone with Explane
All we ask from you as a volunteer is to bring your own smartphone with Explane installed on it. We will measure together with the calibrated noise meter for approximately an hour. Read more >