Welcome to the Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK) Noise Information Portal
We want you to find the information you need. Here, you can discover how the airport and airspace operate specific to you, investigate the type of aircraft operations affecting you, learn about what the airport does to help and find out how you can get involved.
InsightFull is a web experience that provides location-based information to communities impacted by aircraft noise.
How is InsightFull different from other airport community engagement tools?
InsightFull is unique in its focus to provide location-specific data for the communities surrounding OAK. Its user-friendly design and easy-to-understand dashboards set it apart from more complex or technical offerings.
Can InsightFull be customized to meet specific user or community needs?
InsightFull offers customized content depending on a user’s location, which is provided as they enter the site. Users might see different data and descriptive content tailored to their expected aircraft noise experience for their location.
What types of data does InsightFull provide, and how often is it updated?
InsightFull provides various types of data, such as noise levels, flight operations, aircraft overflights, and community noise complaints. The data is updated monthly so users have access to the latest complete month of information.
How do I get back to the location selector pop-up if I want to try a different location?
Click the red box in the upper right corner on desktop (center on mobile) that says “Your Location,” and the pop-up will reappear.
What if my address doesn’t appear?
If your address doesn’t appear in the InsightFull portal, it might be out of range. Check if you entered it correctly, and if it’s still out of range, consider using the Default Location for general information, or Drop Your Pin for information in your area.
What if I don’t want to provide my address?
Use the Default Location option upon entering the site to see general content that is not location-specific. The location-specific content that describes your location’s aircraft noise impact and overflight data will not be visible to you. To see location-based content without providing your exact address, you can use the Drop Your Pin option to select your approximate area. However, be aware that the overflights data will be based on an approximate location and may be less accurate than your exact address.
What security measures are in place to protect the data shared on InsightFull?
InsightFull uses advanced security protocols to ensure all data shared and processed through the platform is secure. This includes data encryption and compliance with relevant privacy regulations.
Can I set up alerts or notifications with InsightFull?
Currently, InsightFull does not support alerts or notifications. However, it provides real-time data and allows users to bookmark specific views for quick access to relevant information.
Is InsightFull accessible on all devices and browsers?
InsightFull is designed to be fully accessible when using desktop devices only. We will be expanding InsightFull’s accessibility to tablets and smartphones soon.
Who should I contact if I have more questions?
If you have additional questions about the InsightFull portal or airport operations, contact OAK’s Noise Office for further assistance. They can provide more detailed information or direct you to the appropriate resources for your inquiries. If you want to submit a noise complaint, click here to submit a complaint to OAK.
Everyone encounters sound every day. It is only when that sound causes an adverse effect on a listener, such as annoyance, that sound becomes noise. And noise is not always just about how loud the sound is, there is a complex set of factors that drive annoyance both based upon the noise itself and what that noise means to us. You can find out more in the following video:
Whilst many factors influence the sound output from the aircraft, it is our local soundscape (or the day-to-day noise that we all experience) that influences how much, or how little aircraft noise we receive.
For example, if you live in a noisy area, potentially within a town or city, or close to a road, the background noise level from those sources is likely to mask the sound of aircraft noise. Conversely, in a quiet area, the masking effect isn’t present and the same aircraft is likely to be more noticeable.
It is important to note that annoyance is a personal experience, what might be annoying to one person may not be annoying to another. Despite this, the airport takes noise monitoring seriously and has an active program to monitor analyze and report on the aircraft and background noise level in the local community.
Want to see more?
Explore the many avenues that the airport provides the data it gathers back to the community. From noise, operations, and complaints statistics to live flights and noise readings, there is so much data to explore.
At its simplest, airspace is a three-dimensional piece of the sky in which aircraft fly. In order to safely manage aircraft that operate in that airspace, Air Traffic Control (ATC) divides up that airspace into several sectors. Some of these, like those around major airports, require more intense management when compared to others that might be more rural and less frequently used. Airspace can be divided down these lines into controlled and uncontrolled airspace.
Controlled Airspace
Controlled airspace is in areas where many aircraft are transiting such as around a major airport or may also be over metropolitan areas and cities and suburbs. As well as covering the major routes that are regularly used between countries and airports.
Controlled airspace is used primarily for safety reasons. Air Traffic Control (ATC) will maintain contact with all aircraft in this airspace and provide directions to either allow those aircraft to safely pass through to their destination, approach, and land, or take off and depart from an airport.
The instructions provided by ATC include a compass bearing (or vector) and an altitude with regular updates provided to pilots to safely separate them from other aircraft.
Uncontrolled Airspace
Outside of controlled airspace is uncontrolled airspace, these areas typically cover rural or unpopulated areas away from major airports, metropolitan areas or major air routes.
As airspace is a three-dimensional space in our skies, you can have uncontrolled airspace underneath controlled airspace. A good example is controlled airspace for major air routes which maybe be located from 15,000ft upwards. Whilst below that altitude, uncontrolled airspace may exist.
When in uncontrolled airspace, the pilot is responsible for maintaining safe separation from other aircraft.
No-Fly and Military Areas
Other forms of airspace include no-fly and military areas. These are typically areas in which flights may not operate, or can operate at certain times for certain reasons. For example:
No-fly zones: cover areas such as gun ranges or sensitive military or civil sites, such as firing ranges or power stations where for safety aircraft are not permitted to fly.
Military zones: cover areas in which the military train, conduct firing and bombing exercise, for safety civilian aircraft are not permitted into these areas.
Drones
Drones are a new challenge and present a large risk to aircraft. Drones are small and hard to see and if one was to collide with an aircraft it could result in a severe accident. As a result, drone operators should take extreme care when flying their drones and avoid operating near airports in their entirety.
