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Material revisions to data and methodology

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Methodology & Data Revisions

Material revisions to data or methodology published on JPXWatch.org. Entries are listed in reverse chronological order.

Updated June 2026By Marc Frons

About this log

This page records material corrections to data or methodology published on JPXWatch.org. Entries are added when:

  • Previously reported operations, counts, or attributions are revised
  • Methodology changes affect how past or future operations are reported
  • Published claims or analyses are retracted or materially revised
  • Errors in published operator, aircraft type, or flight classification are corrected

Routine engineering refinements, internal data-pipeline adjustments, and source-reconciliation notes that do not change user-facing data are maintained in separate internal documentation and are not included here.

To submit a specific correction for review, see the Corrections submission portal.

Each entry is tagged with an impact marker:

  • DATA REVISION — affects historical numbers or displays
  • METHODOLOGY — affects how current or future numbers are calculated
  • BUG FIX (data impact) — a technical fix that changed user-facing data
  • TERMINOLOGY — language or framing change with no numeric impact
  • DOCUMENTATION — clarification of existing methodology; no calculation change
  • CORRECTION — corrects a previously published claim, value, or description
  • CATEGORY BREAKDOWN — moves operations between fleet categories (e.g., fixed-wing and seaplane)
  • TOTALS UNCHANGED — a reclassification or correction that does not change total operation counts

Summary of material changes

The most consequential revisions to date:

  • Reference noise grid regenerated (June 2026) — the propagation-model update and Memorial Day–Labor Day window are now applied to the published seasonal DNL grid; cells at or above 65 dB went from 4 to 75 (maximum 73.0 dB), superseding the projected “10 to 83.”
  • Helicopter source-data provenance finding (June 2026) — four FAA report designators cited for helicopter field measurements could not be matched to public archives; values unchanged, confidence downgraded, sourcing disclosed in the public registry.
  • Weather correlation page wired to real METAR data (May 2026) — The /weather page now queries real historical METAR observations from KJPX (primary) with KFOK (Westhampton) as fallback for the ~2% of days when KJPX has gaps. Each chart shows the source distribution. Source: Iowa Environmental Mesonet (NOAA-derived). Replaces the deterministic estimated-weather path that was disclaimed in the May 2026 “Weather correlation provenance” entry below.
  • Selected-flight noise footprint corrected (May 2026) — A missing altitude unit conversion was producing inflated dB values on the “Show Noise Footprint” feature; the calculation has been corrected.
  • Weather correlation provenance (May 2026) — The /weather correlation card and About page Data Sources were corrected to reflect that selected-period weather is deterministic estimated weather rather than NOAA observations. Live current conditions are unaffected; verified historical-NOAA ingestion is planned.
  • Propagation model update (May 2026) — Track-derived event exposure and atmospheric absorption now active in the DNL grid pipeline; seasonal DNL estimates increased by approximately +1.8 dB at the median and grid cells modeled at or above 65 dB increased from 10 to 83.
  • ADS-B proximity verification of operations (April 2026) — Historical audit found 1.13% of flights tagged as KJPX operations by FlightAware never came within 4 nautical miles of the airport. Going-forward operations are now cross-checked against ADS-B position data.
  • Unified aircraft noise source-level data (April 2026) — Eliminated inconsistency between two parallel noise lookup tables; helicopter and C56X estimates decreased slightly to reflect FAA field measurements and EASA certification values.
  • Loud-jet correction and SEVERE tier adjustment (April 2026) — Noise Impact Scores recomputed under corrected per-flight jet noise methodology; SEVERE tier boundary moved from ≥80 to ≥85.
  • Approach-phase noise offset corrected (April 2026) — Helicopter approach estimates corrected to apply the offset in the direction consistent with underlying source data.
  • Inbound-diverted flights excluded from KJPX counts (April 2026) — Physical-presence methodology now applied consistently to both outbound and inbound diversions.

Entries

METHODOLOGYCORRECTIONDATA REVISION

June 2026Propagation-model update applied to the production grid; earlier figures corrected

The seasonal DNL grid has been regenerated on the Memorial Day–Labor Day window. The May 2026 “Propagation model update” entry (below) projected grid cells at or above 65 dB rising “from 10 to 83,” with seasonal DNL up roughly +1.8/+2.15 dB (median/mean). Those were pre-release projections; the grid was not regenerated then, so it kept showing the prior model until now. Measured: 75 cells at or above 65 dB (previously 4), maximum 73.0 dB, and a +1.60/+1.72 dB (median/mean) per-cell shift. This entry qualifies, but does not alter, the May entry.

The 65 dB contour now also encloses a second zone near Francis S. Gabreski Airport (KFOK), Westhampton — the grid models all KJPX operations wherever they fly, including the KJPX–Gabreski shuttle. The map and About page were updated to match.

These remain modeled estimates, not monitor measurements or formal Part 150 contours.

DATA REVISIONCORRECTION

June 2026Duplicate-flight-record correction (FlightAware fragmentation)

FlightAware occasionally splits a single physical operation into two flight records. When both records were stored as completed, JPXWatch counted one departure twice. An audit identified and removed nine such duplicate departures, each on a separate day, lowering that day's total operations by one: 2020-07-15 (76→75), 2021-04-02 (31→30), 2021-06-21 (56→55), 2021-07-29 (121→120), 2023-07-04 (65→64), 2023-08-20 (170→169), 2026-06-03 (64→63), 2026-06-11 (113→112), and 2026-06-12 (116→115). In each pair, FlightAware's own record marks one leg cancelled; the real operation is retained and only the duplicate is removed.

This correction was applied as a one-time audit. A small residual remains on records where FlightAware removed the aircraft's tail number, which our matching cannot yet pair automatically; these are tracked and corrected as identified. Because a duplicate adds a fixed one operation to a day's total, the effect is proportionally largest on the lightest-traffic days and smallest on the busiest days.

BUG FIX (data impact)

June 2026Address-page statistics corrected for high-volume views

The My Home page computed its summary statistics from a flight list that truncated to 1,000 rows whenever an address, radius, and date-range combination matched more than 1,000 flights — a threshold some views began crossing as summer traffic built in early June. For those views, the headline count was understated and frozen at 1,000, and other measurements on the page were computed from the truncated list.

The count, fleet and curfew breakdowns, busiest day, and Closest Approach are now computed over the complete matched set; the noise measurements (loudest, high-noise, average) are still drawn from the most recent flights and now state when they reflect a subset, with the flight list doing the same. Views matching fewer than 1,000 flights — including the public demo — were unaffected. The issue was found by an internal audit of address-page numbers.

TERMINOLOGY

June 2026Modeled-estimate labeling and threshold clarifications

A terminology pass across address-level and summary displays, continuing the April 2026 unit-convention and curfew-terminology work. No metric, calculation, or threshold changed.

  • The My Home high-noise summary now reads “flights with modeled event levels of 65 dB or higher at or near this address” (previously “flights above 65 dB at your address”), and its tooltip now states explicitly that this 65 dB is a JPXWatch-defined single-event threshold, unrelated to the FAA's 65 DNL cumulative threshold shown in the Estimated DNL card. The two figures share a number but measure different acoustic quantities.
  • The total-flights denominator was removed from that card pending an internal review of how the underlying counts are scoped; the count of qualifying flights is unchanged.
  • Remaining uses of “compliant / compliance” describing voluntary procedures (altitude, corridor, and curfew contexts) were replaced with adherence- and operations-based phrasing, consistent with the April 2026 terminology entries. The Today page's repeat flag now uses neutral frequency language.
  • The “Est.” prefix and explicit dB units were added to remaining bare modeled values (e.g., Loudest Flight, Avg Event Level).
  • The DNL seasonality link text was rewritten descriptively (“why seasonal concentration isn't reflected in annual DNL”).
  • The comparison-population label for percentile rankings was unified to a single formulation across NoiseRank and DNL displays.
  • The navigation label “Accountability” was renamed “Scorecards,” completing the April 2026 accountability-terminology cleanup, which had not reached the navigation label.
DOCUMENTATION

June 2026Aircraft noise source registry and methodology versioning published

JPXWatch's aircraft noise source data is now maintained in a public, auditable registry rather than solely in application code. For each of the 57 mapped aircraft types, the registry records the served noise values, the EPNdB certification triple where published, certification basis (Part 36 appendix or EASA TCDSN), native unit, data source, confidence level, and a citable source document. An automated check verifies on every change that the registry and the production code remain identical; the noise model's constants and release notes are now versioned, and noise-grid computations are stamped with the methodology version that produced them. The basis-of-estimate indicator introduced in April 2026 is now driven directly from this registry.

No displayed value changed. This is the system-of-record infrastructure for the source-data provenance commitments described in the methodology section.

DOCUMENTATIONCORRECTION

June 2026Helicopter source-data provenance: verification finding

In populating the source registry, every cited source document was checked against public archives. The four FAA report designators long carried in the codebase for nine helicopter types' field-measured values — DOT/FAA/CT-84-2, FAA-AEE-01-04, FAA-AEE-09-01, FAA-AEE-15-01, as referenced in the April 2026 “Unified aircraft noise source-level data” entry — could not be matched to any public FAA, ROSAP, or DTIC record as of June 9, 2026.

Impact on published values: none. The helicopter noise values themselves are unchanged and remain in use. What changed is how their sourcing is recorded: the registry rows for the affected types now describe the values as recorded-as FAA LAmax measurements with provenance unconfirmed, carry medium rather than high confidence, and include EASA EPNdB certification data alongside for comparison. The values most plausibly trace to the FAA's INM/AEDT helicopter noise database, which descends from FAA measurement programs; source recovery is tracked, and citations will be upgraded if the values are matched to a resolvable document. This entry qualifies, but does not alter, the April 2026 entry — entries in this log are never retroactively edited.

CATEGORY BREAKDOWNTOTALS UNCHANGED

June 2026Seaplane operations reported as their own category

Seaplane operations are now reported as a distinct category in the fleet-mix breakdown. Previously they were counted within fixed-wing.

What changed. We refined how an aircraft is identified as a seaplane, moving the determination to the airframe (tail) level: an aircraft is recognized as a seaplane from a confirmed operation at a water-only seaplane base, or from a known seaplane operator, and all of that aircraft's operations in eligible types are then counted consistently as seaplane. An amphibious aircraft does not change configuration between trips. Aircraft that cannot be confidently identified as seaplanes remain counted as fixed-wing.

Magnitude. Approximately 6,200 historical operations (2020–2026), previously included in the fixed-wing category, are now shown as seaplane. Fixed-wing category counts decrease by the same amount. Total operation counts are unchanged, as are the helicopter, jet, and curfew-period counts — only the fixed-wing / seaplane split is affected.

Composition correction. The refined method also surfaces seaplane activity by a second seaplane operation that had previously been folded into fixed-wing — much of its activity carries no operator label in the upstream data, so the earlier operator-based method did not recognize it. The seaplane breakdown therefore reflects more than a single operator.

Auditability. Every reclassified flight record is individually logged with its prior category and is reversible.

METHODOLOGYTERMINOLOGYCORRECTION

June 2026Active-runway description corrected and made inference-explicit

The “Today at JPX” / “Today so far” panels and the How Wind Direction Affects Runway Usage explainer describe which runway fixed-wing traffic is likely using and which way departures and arrivals fly. That description has been corrected and rebuilt on a single canonical definition of the airport's runway geometry, so the panels and the About page can no longer drift apart.

Correction. An earlier version of the live copy stated reversed departure/arrival directions for one runway case and asserted a runway as definitively “active.” Both were fixed: every runway-direction fact now derives from one source, and the directional facts were re-verified against the published FAA airport diagram.

Inference, not observation. JPXWatch does not receive a live feed of which runway is in use; it infers the likely runway from the current wind and the airport's published fixed-wing preference for Runway 28. The wording now reflects that — it hedges the runway (“likely using Runway 28,” “traffic may shift to Runway 16”) while stating the resulting overflight direction plainly. JPXWatch infers conditions; it does not direct traffic.

Crosswind runway now represented. The logic and the explainer now express the 16/34 crosswind runway, used in strong north–south winds, which the prior wind→runway description omitted entirely.

Favored vs. tolerated. The copy now distinguishes winds that genuinely favor a runway (aligned, a headwind) from winds a runway merely tolerates as a crosswind. In particular, the prevailing summer southwest wind sits at a wide angle to Runway 28 — more crosswind than headwind — so Runway 28 carries that traffic as the standard fixed-wing runway by preference, not because the wind favors it. The previous text implied the latter.

Stale-observation guard. When the most recent wind observation is more than about 90 minutes old, the panel now shows the observation time (“winds as of H:MM ET”) rather than presenting a confident runway claim on stale data.

Scope: fixed-wing aircraft only. Helicopters follow their own published routes (Echo, November, Sierra) and are not inferred from runway logic. No operation counts, aircraft classifications, or noise estimates are affected — the change is to the live conditions description and the methodology explainer.

METHODOLOGYCORRECTION

June 2026Dashboard operations counts aligned to the published definition

The main dashboard's operations and curfew counts now apply the same definition of a counted operation that the public homepage and Today views already used, and that this page has described since April 2026: operations ADS-B shows never came within 4 nautical miles of KJPX (phantoms), and flights filed to KJPX that diverted and landed elsewhere, are excluded from the totals and the Helicopters / Jets / Seaplanes / Other breakdowns. Previously the dashboard's headline “Operations” card and its category and curfew breakdowns still counted those operations, so the dashboard read slightly higher than the homepage for the same period. The two now agree.

Underlying flight records are unchanged — diverted and flagged flights remain in the database and in flight lists; only the aggregate counts exclude them. As part of the same update, historical daily summaries predating the April 2026 ADS-B phantom audit were rebuilt so cached totals match the live definition, and a nightly recompute keeps them in sync going forward.

METHODOLOGYDOCUMENTATION

May 2026Weather Correlation page accuracy and clarity pass

Following the Phase 2 wire-up of real METAR data, two user-visible items on the /weather page were inaccurate and have been corrected. First, the “Operations by Weather Condition” chart was binding to total flights per condition rather than the per-day rate; readers were comparing buckets of unequal denominators. Bars now show average operations per day of each condition with the total surfaced in the tooltip, matching the per-day framing already used in the Key Insights below the charts.

Second, a paragraph at the bottom of the /weather page still described historical weather correlation as “estimated weather pending verified historical-NOAA ingestion” — stale text from before the Phase 2 wire-up. The paragraph now describes the real KJPX-primary / KFOK-fallback sourcing consistent with the inline disclosure card above it.

No underlying data or methodology changes; the corrections are to chart bindings and attribution text. Companion clarity improvements landed in the same change — the Wind Rose title was extended to acknowledge that lobe length encodes operations frequency while color encodes average noise (both true), the Daily Weather & Operations Timeline gained a fixed “Ops” y-axis reference and bottom-anchored bars to remove visual ambiguity, and the per-chart KJPX/KFOK source-attribution tooltip now explains that 100% / 0% reflects observed coverage during the visible date range rather than implying KFOK is non-functional.

METHODOLOGYDOCUMENTATION

May 2026Weather correlation page wired to real METAR data

The Weather Correlation page at /weather previously rendered charts using deterministic estimated weather, with an inline disclosure acknowledging the limitation (see the prior “Weather correlation provenance” entry below). The page now queries real historical METAR observations from KJPX (East Hampton Airport, the primary source) with KFOK (Francis S. Gabreski Airport, Westhampton) as fallback for gaps in KJPX's reporting. Each chart shows the source distribution as “Data: KJPX X% / KFOK fallback Y%”.

Wind rose join. Operations are now bucketed into the wind rose by the wind direction at the actual hour each operation occurred, not by the day's aggregate dominant direction. The hourly join is more accurate when intraday wind shifts are large.

Source. Observations are sourced from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet, an academic archive maintained by Iowa State University that ingests from NOAA's authoritative feeds (Unidata IDD, NCEI ISD, MADIS One Minute ASOS). The backfill spans 2020-01-01 onward; KJPX covers approximately 98% of days and KFOK fills the remaining ~2%.

Coverage gaps. The Weather Correlation page's summary stats strip dropped its “Avg Humidity” cell because the daily summary view does not aggregate humidity. The other four cells (Avg Temp, Avg Wind, Avg Visibility, Period) are sourced from the real daily summary.

Live chip unaffected. The “Current” chip in the page header continues to be powered by NOAA Aviation Weather's live METAR feed (a separate path from the historical observations) and is unchanged. The Raw METAR tooltip is also unchanged.

The dashboard's Weather & Operations summary card was also updated to use the real hourly wind direction at each operation's hour for the “X winds dominant” subtitle, replacing the deterministic estimated wind direction the card previously used.

METHODOLOGYDOCUMENTATION

May 2026Selected-flight noise footprint altitude unit corrected

The “Show Noise Footprint” feature on individual flight details applied no unit conversion to FlightAware altitude data, producing dB values 11 to 16 dB higher than reality at typical cruise altitudes. A named helper at the boundary plus a cross-check test prevent recurrence.

DOCUMENTATIONTERMINOLOGY

May 2026Weather correlation provenance

The Weather Correlation Analysis card on the /weather page (Wind Speed vs Noise Level, Temperature vs Operations, Operations by Weather Condition, Wind Rose, and Key Insights) uses deterministic estimated weather for the selected period rather than observed historical NOAA data. The page header subtitle, the page-bottom source line, and the About page Data Sources entry previously implied the analysis used NOAA observations. Those claims have been replaced with honest disclosure: an inline notice on the correlation card identifies the data as estimated, the page header subtitle and source line describe each data path accurately, and the About page methodology subsections each note the estimated-weather provenance.

The live current-conditions chip in the WeatherCorrelation card header continues to use real NOAA METAR data and is unaffected. The Raw METAR tooltip continues to use real NOAA METAR data and is unaffected. The Estimated Carbon Emissions block uses a separate data path (FlightAware operations and ICAO emission factors) and is unaffected.

The Key Insights section now requires a minimum of 10 days per subset for any percentage-difference insight, and uses descriptive rather than causal language. Insights below the threshold are suppressed.

Verified historical-NOAA ingestion is planned. When implemented, the correlation analysis will use real observed weather and the disclosure language will be retired.

METHODOLOGY

May 2026Ground elevation handling unified across surfaces

JPXWatch's various noise-modeling surfaces previously used inconsistent ground elevation defaults: the live noise trail visualization used 30 feet (a regional average for the South Fork coastal plain), while the footprint calculator, DNL grid pipeline, and altitude-compliance checks all used 55 feet (the airport field elevation per FAA Form 5010). The trail visualization has been updated to use the same 55-foot baseline as the rest of the pipeline, and to apply the same location-specific elevation overrides for characterized higher-elevation zones (currently the South Fork moraine ridge near Town Line Road in Wainscott, 132.5 feet MSL).

Impact on published values. Trail-visualized noise estimates increase by approximately 0.5 dB over baseline-terrain locations and by approximately 1.5 dB over moraine-override zones, reflecting more accurate AGL calculations. The DNL grid pipeline, footprint calculator, and other modeling surfaces are unaffected — they already used the 55-foot baseline and (for the DNL grid) location-specific overrides.

Planned improvements include extending location-specific elevation data to additional flight-path-sensitive areas (East Hampton proper, Sagaponack, North Fork analogs) and eventually integrating per-location terrain data from the USGS National Elevation Dataset.

METHODOLOGYDOCUMENTATION

May 2026Propagation model update

JPXWatch's noise-estimation pipeline was updated to use track-derived event exposure duration and atmospheric absorption in the DNL grid pipeline.

Track-derived exposure. Sound Exposure Level (SEL) is now estimated using the time an aircraft spent within the listener's noise-impact radius, derived from FlightAware track data, rather than a fixed 15-second flyover default. For events with multiple track points within the radius, exposure is calculated from the observed track-point span plus a 30-second nominal interval; single-point events receive a 30-second nominal duration.

Atmospheric absorption. The model now applies a static atmospheric absorption adjustment as a simple linear function of total slant distance, approximately 0.5 dB per 1,000 feet. This adjustment was previously implemented but not applied to DNL grid calculations.

Lateral attenuation deferred. Lateral attenuation remains gated off in the live DNL grid pending a separate methodology review. The open questions are the provenance of the simplified attenuation table and the angle convention used by the lookup. This work is deferred pending external expert engagement.

Impact on published values. Estimated seasonal DNL values across the KJPX impact zone increased by approximately +1.8 dB at the median, with a mean increase of +2.15 dB across 335,016 grid cells. Grid cells modeled at or above 65 dB seasonal DNL-style exposure increased from 10 to 83. This increase is concentrated near the airport and appears to be driven primarily by the track-derived exposure-duration change at short slant distances, where atmospheric absorption is comparatively small. These values remain modeled estimates, not monitor measurements or formal Part 150 contours.

Documentation reconciliation. Public methodology documentation was updated to reflect the current live model. The About page now describes JPXWatch as a first-order source-propagation model informed by aviation-noise modeling principles, not as an AEDT implementation or regulatory contour model. The heatmap language was also revised to refer to the FAA Part 150 reference threshold, rather than implying that JPXWatch's seasonal-DNL estimates are equivalent to formal annual Part 150 contours.

METHODOLOGYTERMINOLOGYDOCUMENTATION

April 2026Unit-convention pass (Track A)

This revision was implemented in three phases (A0, A1a, A1b) over April 2026, addressing inconsistencies in how the dashboard labeled aircraft noise values across surfaces.

Background. Aircraft noise certification under FAA/EASA Part 36 uses different units depending on aircraft category. Small fixed-wing aircraft (Appendix F, G) and small helicopters (Appendix J) are certified in A-weighted decibels (dB(A)). Jets (Appendix B) and heavy helicopters (Appendix H) are certified in Effective Perceived Noise Level (EPNdB), which accounts for the tonal character and duration of jet noise. JPXWatch's dashboard aggregates noise data across all aircraft categories. Prior to April 2026, the dashboard inconsistently labeled aggregated values as “dB(A)” — technically incorrect for the EPNdB-derived portions of the data.

A0 (April 2026 — PR 195). Per-flight value displays, tooltips, alert messages, CSV exports, and Mapbox text fields were updated to use unit-neutral labels (plain “dB” rather than “dB(A)”) in mixed-fleet aggregation contexts. The unit-neutral approach reflects that aggregated values combine measurements derived from different certification units and cannot be assigned to a single weighting convention.

A1a (April 2026 — PR 196). Five band legends across the dashboard (Aircraft Type Breakdown, Map Overlays Flight Density, Map Overlays Live noise trails, Today Hero Map compact, Weather Correlation wind rose) were unified to a four-band scheme: < 65 dB Quiet, 65–74 dB Moderate, 75–84 dB Loud, ≥ 85 dB Very Loud. A shared utility (lib/noise/bands.ts) was introduced to centralize the band definitions and color tokens. The DNL legend on the Noise Exposure Map was not changed — it uses FAA Part 150 land-use compatibility categories, which are appropriately distinct from the perceptual bands.

A1b (April 2026 — this revision). The About page methodology section was updated to describe the unit-convention approach explicitly. Several factual claims were corrected:

  • AEDT NPD methodology is documented in Section 4.2 of the AEDT 4a Technical Manual, not Section 11.3.4 (which covers BADA 4 aircraft performance, not noise). The previous citation was incorrect.
  • The seasonal-airport DNL passage was rewritten to argue from the underlying mathematics (averaging dilutes individual loud events at low traffic volumes) rather than from a specific JFK operations figure that was not directly verifiable.
  • The High-Noise Events methodology in the My Home feature was repositioned as provisional pending methodology review. The previous framing conflated single-event modeled noise at a listener address with FAA Part 150's 65 dB DNL cumulative threshold; these share a number but measure different acoustic quantities. Refining the threshold value and its acoustic basis is a planned methodology task.

A1b also extended the unit-convention work to aircraft cards on the /seaplanes, /helicopters, and /jets pages. Each aircraft card's modeled-takeoff stat block now displays the unit that matches the data the dashboard carries: EPNdB for jets (computed from Part 36 Appendix B EPNdB cert readings); dB(A) for helicopters and small fixed-wing (data is LAmax at 1,000 ft, an A-weighted measurement, either field-measured via FAA ROSAP technical reports or converted from cert EPNdB).

AEDT subsetting detail. JPXWatch's current calculation — Part 36 reference noise plus inverse-square geometric spreading plus a linear approximation of atmospheric absorption — is a defensible subset of AEDT 4a methodology. Three specific AEDT adjustments are not yet implemented:

  • Noise Fraction Adjustment (AEDT §4.3.3): accounts for the fraction of the flight path contributing to noise at a given listener location.
  • Duration Adjustment (AEDT §4.3.4): accounts for variation in event duration relative to the reference duration used in NPD curves.
  • Lateral Attenuation Adjustment (AEDT §4.3.5): accounts for ground-effect attenuation at lateral distances from the flight path.

Implementation of these adjustments is tracked as a planned improvement, awaiting expert review of how to subset AEDT methodology appropriately for KJPX's small-airport operating profile. Two AEDT-acknowledged limitations are inherited by JPXWatch's modeling and are documented on the About page (Section 11): under-prediction over acoustically hard surfaces such as water, and the inability to separately account for airframe noise as distinct from propulsion noise.

TERMINOLOGY

2026-04-23Phase 1 terminology rename across dashboard, mobile, and exports

Renamed user-facing “Curfew Violations” to “Curfew Operations,” and “Curfew Violators” / “Repeat Offenders” to “Curfew Operators” / “Repeat Curfew Operators,” across the main dashboard, mobile app, analytics surfaces, narrative insights, alert display labels, and CSV exports. The rename aligns short-form UI labels with the descriptive framing already in use on this page and in the Grading Formula: the dashboard reports observed operations during the Town's published 10 PM – 7 AM curfew, not formal regulatory findings.

The word “violation” is retained where it refers to formal regulatory findings rather than dashboard metrics — specifically, in the operator scorecard disclaimer that distinguishes project-defined community transparency metrics from FAA regulatory determinations, and in the About-page parenthetical characterizing what the site's data is not (legal evidence of route violations; the published routes are voluntary procedures, not regulatory mandates). Those uses are legally precise and deliberate.

No metric, calculation, or filter behavior changed. String-literal alert-rule trigger types and internal identifiers / API field names are deferred to a subsequent migration so that saved alert rules continue to work.

DOCUMENTATION

2026-04-19Methodology & data revisions page launched

The corrections log section of the About page was migrated to a standalone page at /about/revisions and renamed “Methodology & Data Revisions” to distinguish it from the existing /corrections submission portal. All prior entries are retained with identical substantive content; changes are limited to headline formatting, impact tagging, ordering, and the addition of the “About this log” preamble and “Summary of material changes” section. No entries were removed, softened, or materially revised.

METHODOLOGYDATA REVISION

April 2026Methodology updates

Scorecard methodology and labels. Refined the scorecard methodology and supporting terminology. The “Event level” column replaces the previous “Est. dB” header; “high-noise” replaces “loud” throughout. The numerical compliance score is no longer displayed on scorecards; only the letter grade appears. The underlying scoring formula and grade bands are documented in the scorecard methodology section.

Noise estimation fallback logic. The site's fallback logic for aircraft types not in the type-specific certification mapping now routes through a category-average path (helicopter, jet, or fixed-wing) rather than a single generic default. This matches the fallback approach described in the methodology section and produces more accurate estimates for a wider set of aircraft. Existing records have been updated to reflect the new logic.

Basis-of-estimate indicator. Each operator scorecard now displays a small indicator next to the Event level showing whether the value is derived from type-specific certification data, a category average, or a generic fallback. The indicator and its explanatory legend make the provenance of each value visible at a glance.

Expanded type-specific mapping. Additional aircraft types observed at KJPX have been added to the type-specific noise profile mapping, with values sourced from FAA and EASA Part 36 certification data. This moves the noise estimates for these types from category-average derivation to values specific to their aircraft type.

Within-type variation disclosure. The About page's noise methodology section now includes a subsection on within-type variation, acknowledging that aircraft sharing an ICAO type code can produce different real-world noise depending on generation, configuration, modifications, and operating technique.

METHODOLOGY

April 2026Inbound-diverted flights excluded from KJPX counts

Flights filed to arrive at KJPX but diverted to another airport before landing are no longer counted as KJPX operations in public totals. This aligns with the physical-presence methodology already stated for outbound diversions: only aircraft that actually touched the KJPX runway are counted. Inbound-diverted flights are retained in the database for transparency (operator patterns, weather-related diversion clusters), and FlightAware applies the same convention on its airport pages.

BUG FIX (data impact)

April 2026Recovery of dropped operations

Five genuinely-missing operations were recovered and added to the public record. Two transient webhook-ingestion bugs caused 39 flight events to fail during two narrow windows: 27 on April 8 (null-status constraint) and 12 between April 11 and April 13 (status-check constraint). Most of the affected flights were already captured by the next-morning batch pull from FlightAware's history API, so the operational record was never substantially incomplete. Replaying the dead-letter queue restored 5 genuinely-missing operations (N9934Q local-circuit training loops at KJPX on the afternoon of April 8).

As part of this work, a latent issue was also corrected: out-of-order webhook events could previously overwrite populated flight fields with null values. Flight records are now merged rather than replaced on re-ingest.

DATA REVISIONMETHODOLOGY

April 2026ADS-B proximity verification of operations

198 flights (1.13% of the 17,453 flights in the database with full ADS-B track data) were tagged as KJPX operations by FlightAware but never came within 4 nautical miles of the airport. These phantom operations are concentrated in two operators (Cutter Aviation and NetJets, approximately 65% combined) and are predominantly fixed-wing and jet rather than helicopter. The phantom rate has declined over time, from 5–14% in 2020 to under 1% in recent months, reflecting improvements in upstream data quality.

Going forward, every newly ingested operation is cross-checked against ADS-B position data. Operations whose closest approach to KJPX (40.9594°N, 72.2518°W) exceeds 4 nautical miles are flagged for review and excluded from public counts. The 4 nm threshold was set after sampling 25 borderline flights and finding a clean break: every flight whose closest approach was within 3.75 nm was a verified KJPX operation, and every flight at 4.33 nm or greater was a phantom.

Approximately 85% of historical operations come from earlier batch imports without ADS-B track data and cannot be retroactively verified by this method. Historical counts remain as originally recorded; year-over-year comparisons should account for the fact that data from this point forward is more rigorously verified.

METHODOLOGY

April 2026Diverted-flight detection added

JPXWatch now compares the filed destination on a flight's departure record against the actual landing destination on its arrival record. When the two differ, the flight is flagged as diverted and a “Diverted” badge appears in the operations table and flight detail view, matching the treatment in FlightAware's app. Diverted flights remain counted as KJPX departures (the aircraft did physically depart KJPX), but the badge gives a complete picture of the flight's outcome. A historical backfill identified one prior diversion in the database.

BUG FIX (data impact)

April 2026ADS-B denormalization bug fixed

A trigger on the ADS-B position table had an incorrect search path and was silently rolling back point insertions for a subset of flights, leaving 337 flights without denormalized track data. The trigger has been corrected and the affected flights backfilled.

DATA REVISION

April 2026Approach-phase noise offset corrected

A methodology audit identified that the approach-phase noise offset for helicopter arrivals was being applied in a direction inconsistent with the underlying source data. The offset has been corrected. Approach-phase modeled estimates, which primarily affect helicopter arrival operations, now reflect the corrected calculation.

The underlying source measurement (lamax at 1,000 ft from FAA technical reports) is a flyover measurement; the approach value is derived by applying a −2 dB offset consistent with the EASA-derived convention used for all other aircraft types in the model. Details in the investigation report and methodology audit.

DATA REVISIONMETHODOLOGY

April 2026Unified aircraft noise source-level data

Helicopter noise estimates decreased by 1–5 dB depending on type; the C56X (Citation XLS+) decreased by 2 dB; 19 previously-unrecognized aircraft types now receive per-type estimates instead of a generic 80 dB fallback. JPXWatch previously maintained two independent noise lookup tables — a 28-type client-side table and a 47-type EASA-derived mapping — and different views (e.g., live noise trails vs. track-based analysis) could produce different dB estimates for the same aircraft type. This inconsistency has been eliminated.

All code paths now use a single lookup cascade: FAA field-measured data (where available for helicopters) → EASA certification data (47 types) → category-average fallback.

For 9 common helicopter types (R22, R44, R66, S76, EC35, A109, B06, B407, AS50), source noise levels now come from FAA technical reports containing actual ground-level measurements at 1,000 ft (DOT/FAA/CT-84-2, FAA-AEE-01-04, FAA-AEE-09-01, FAA-AEE-15-01). Measured values are lower than the prior certification-derived estimates.

For the C56X, takeoff decreased from 86 to 84 dB and approach from 82 to 80 dB, adopting the EASA certification value (84/80) over the prior un-sourced estimate.

Nineteen additional aircraft types (including S92, GLF6, CL30, CL35, CL60, C750, B350, and others) now receive per-type estimates; most are louder than the generic 80 dB default they previously received.

DATA REVISIONMETHODOLOGY

April 2026Loud-jet correction and SEVERE tier adjustment

Two related changes to the Noise Impact Score:

Loud-jet correction. Historical Noise Impact Scores previously treated all jets as ≥85 dB in the Fleet Mix component because per-flight noise estimates were not preserved in monthly aggregates. JPXWatch now stores a per-day “loud jets” count in the daily summary table, populated from the same per-flight estimation pipeline used elsewhere on the site. Historical scores have been recomputed under the corrected methodology and may show modestly lower Fleet Mix subscores than previously published, particularly for periods with significant light-jet traffic.

SEVERE tier boundary adjusted. The SEVERE tier boundary moved from ≥80 to ≥85, narrowing the top tier to be more selective and better match the underlying score distribution. The HIGH tier now covers 65–84. This change applies prospectively and to historical period displays as scores are re-rendered.

DOCUMENTATION

April 2026Public corrections log launched

The public corrections log is now live, providing a structured public channel for submitting and evaluating specific corrections to data points, classifications, methodology, and operator identity claims. All submissions and their resolutions are documented transparently. Accepted curfew-period exceptions (e.g., mechanical diversions, medical emergencies) are excluded from grading-formula penalties.

DOCUMENTATION

April 2026Methodology documentation strengthened

No changes to calculations, data sources, or displayed values; this update improves how the methodology is described.

Added explicit description of the regulatory pedigree linking Part 36 certification data to the FAA's AEDT, ICAO Doc 9911, and the Aircraft Noise and Performance database. Corrected the description of certification measurement geometry (three reference points per Part 36, not a single reference distance).

Added peer-reviewed validation citations: Rindfleisch et al. (2024, JASA) large-scale AEDT validation at SFO; Meister et al. (2021, Aerospace) three-model comparison at Zurich and Geneva; Simons et al. (2022) on certification-category correlation with measured noise trends at Schiphol.

Added comparative context noting other airport noise platforms (WebTrak, Casper, Noise-Map.com) that use the same aircraft-type-based methodology. Added “relative vs. absolute” framing clarifying that JPXWatch's primary analytical value is comparative ranking of aircraft types and operators, not precise decibel certification at specific locations.

TERMINOLOGY

April 2026About page terminology and disclaimer cleanup

Added prominent disclaimer that displayed decibel values are modeled estimates derived from type-certification data rather than on-site sound measurements.

Renamed glossary term “Repeat Offender” to “Repeat Curfew-Period Operator” to better match the project's framing of curfew operations as observed events against a published standard rather than legal violations.

Expanded the operator scorecard disclaimer to explicitly note that grades are not judgments about safety, legality, service quality, or overall company performance.

Softened narrative language about “gap between voluntary commitments and actual behavior” to “differences between published standards, voluntary commitments, and observed operations” to align tone with the project's measurement framing.

TERMINOLOGY

April 2026Grading Formula and Note refinements

Renamed “Curfew violations” to “Curfew-period operations” within the Grading Formula to align terminology with the project's framing of curfew operations as observed events against the Town's published standard rather than legal violations.

Expanded the Compliance Grading Note to explicitly state that grades are not judgments about safety, legality, service quality, or overall company performance, bringing the About page Note into parity with the corresponding disclaimer on operator scorecards.

TERMINOLOGY

April 2026Accountability terminology cleanup

Replaced undefined uses of “accountability” with “scorecards” or “transparency metrics” in navigation, section headers, and narrative framing. This change does not affect any metric, calculation, or data display — it aligns framing language with the project's measurement-and-documentation stance rather than an adversarial one. Defined terms of art (“compliance grade,” “compliance rate”) are unchanged, as these are mechanically computed against the Town of East Hampton's published 10 PM – 7 AM curfew standard.

Earlier methodology changes, including the April 11, 2026 curfew methodology realignment, are documented in the Curfew Methodology section of the About page.