DAFIF

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DAFIF diagram of Ottawa International Airport Cyow-dafif-airport-diagram.png
DAFIF diagram of Ottawa International Airport

The Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File or DAFIF ( /ˈdfɪf/ ) is a comprehensive database of up-to-date aeronautical data, including information on airports, airways, airspaces, navigation data, and other facts relevant to flying in the entire world, managed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) of the United States.

Contents

Withdrawal of public access

DAFIF was publicly available until October 2006 through the Internet; however, it was closed to public access because "increased numbers of foreign source providers are claiming intellectual property rights or are forewarning NGA that they intend to copyright their source". [1] Currently, only federal and state government agencies, authorized government contractors, and Department of Defense customers are able to access the DAFIF data.

At the time of the announcement, the NGA did not say who the "foreign source providers" were. It was subsequently revealed that the Australian Government was behind the move. The Australian government-owned corporation Airservices Australia in September 2003 started charging for access to Australian data. Rather than exclude the Australian data, the NGA opted to stop making the data available to the public. [2]

USFIF

A product called USFIF (pronounced as yoos-fəf ) or the United States Flight Information File which contains only data related to the United States was available on the NGA website until October 2007. NGA no longer hosts any aeronautical information on the publicly available website.

Replacement for Google Earth data

Since the DAFIF data has ceased to be available to the public, new sources of the data have arrived, though none is (yet) a complete replacement:

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Geodetic System</span> Geodetic reference system

The World Geodetic System (WGS) is a standard used in cartography, geodesy, and satellite navigation including GPS. The current version, WGS 84, defines an Earth-centered, Earth-fixed coordinate system and a geodetic datum, and also describes the associated Earth Gravitational Model (EGM) and World Magnetic Model (WMM). The standard is published and maintained by the United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency</span> US DoD division

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of national security. Initially known as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) from 1996 to 2003, it is a member of the United States Intelligence Community.

Airspace is the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere. It is not the same as outer space which is the expanse or space outside the Earth and aerospace which is the general term for Earth's atmosphere and the outer space within the planet's vicinity.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">ENAIRE</span> Spanish air navigation manager.

ENAIRE is the air navigation manager in Spain, certified for the provision of enroute, approach and aerodrome control services. As a public corporate entity attached to the Spanish Ministry of Public Works, it is responsible for air traffic control, aeronautical information and the communication, navigation and surveillance networks so air companies and their aircraft can fly safely and in an organised format within Spanish airspace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurocontrol</span> European air traffic organisation

The European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, commonly known as Eurocontrol, is an international organisation working to achieve safe and seamless air traffic management across Europe. Founded in 1963, Eurocontrol currently has 41 member states with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. It has several local sites as well, including an Innovation Hub in Brétigny-sur-Orge, France, the Aviation Learning Centre (ALC) in Luxembourg, and the Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The organisation employs approximately two thousand people, and operates with an annual budget in excess of half a billion Euro.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Airservices Australia</span> Australian air navigation service provider

Airservices Australia is an Australian Government-owned corporation, responsible for providing services to the aviation industry within the Australian Flight Information Region (FIR). Some of Airservices Australia’s responsibilities include air traffic control, airway navigation, communication facilities, publishing aeronautical data, airport rescue, and fire-fighting services. Airservices Australia has international partnerships with ICAO, CANSO and IATA.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sailing Directions</span> Details of routes for coastal navigation

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A notice to mariners advises mariners of important matters affecting navigational safety, including new hydrographic information, changes in channels and aids to navigation, and other important data.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Port Index</span>

The World Port Index contains a tabular listing of thousands of ports throughout the world, describing their location, characteristics, known facilities, and available services. Of particular interest are the applicable volume of Sailing Directions and the number of the harbor chart. The table is arranged geographically, with an alphabetical index.

GeoBase is a federal, provincial and territorial government initiative that is overseen by the Canadian Council on Geomatics (CCOG). It is undertaken to ensure the provision of, and access to, a common, up-to-date and maintained base of quality geospatial data for Canada. Through the GeoBase, users with an interest in geomatics have access to quality geospatial information at no cost and with unrestricted use.

Geographic information systems (GIS) play a constantly evolving role in geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) and United States national security. These technologies allow a user to efficiently manage, analyze, and produce geospatial data, to combine GEOINT with other forms of intelligence collection, and to perform highly developed analysis and visual production of geospatial data. Therefore, GIS produces up-to-date and more reliable GEOINT to reduce uncertainty for a decisionmaker. Since GIS programs are Web-enabled, a user can constantly work with a decision maker to solve their GEOINT and national security related problems from anywhere in the world. There are many types of GIS software used in GEOINT and national security, such as Google Earth, ERDAS IMAGINE, GeoNetwork opensource, and Esri ArcGIS.

References

  1. "NGA Invites Public Comment on Proposal to Remove Aeronautical Information from Public Sale and Distribution" (PDF). Media Release. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). 2004-12-03. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-10-21.
  2. Tiboni, Frank (2005-12-12). "NGA bans flight data from public view: Agency cites intellectual property rights as reason for policy shift". Federal Computer Week (fcw.com). FCW Media Group. Archived from the original on 2006-06-22.