Casper Airport Solutions Inc.
In response to community complaints and concerns, the City Council approved an Agreement with Casper Airport Solutions, Inc. at their December 10, 2019 meeting. Casper identified four sites for the installation of a permanent noise monitor. All four sites are compatible with solar power, have consistently low ambient noise levels, and provide the opportunity to capture a wide range of aircraft activity from San Jose, Moffett Field, Palo Alto and San Carlos airports.
Airplane Noise Monitory System
Sunnyvale is primarily impacted by South Flow arrivals into SJC Airport when weather conditions reverse the normal arrival flow into the airport. The result is that a high volume of aircraft overflies the City in a narrow swath between 1,500-3,000 feet in altitude on the downwind leg of their approach to Runways 12L and 12R.
In 2020, Sunnyvale installed noise monitors in four locations throughout the City with the goal of (1) establishing a historic baseline of actual airplane noise levels, and (2) utilizing that baseline to compare and measure any impacts resulting from FAA changes to flight path operations over Sunnyvale.
On February 1, 2021, the City launched the Noise Lab website. The site allows residents to see trends in airplane flight paths. It also tracks noise events in their specific neighborhood. Residents can run reports and view statistics about flight activity and noise levels. The site also includes a flight tracking page (Flight Tracker). On it, residents can view near real-time and historical flight paths and noise data, covering the past six months.
San Jose International Airport (SJC) South Flow
During times of inclement weather, some mornings, or during frontal passages, the wind at San Jose Mineta International (SJC) will blow from the south. For safety reasons, aircrafts must take off and land into these southerly winds, requiring the airport to operate in "south flow," an alternate arrival path into SJC that allows aircraft to land and take off into the wind. During these times, aircraft must follow a basic traffic pattern over the area to the west of SJC over Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, before turning east over Moffett Airfield to return to the airport. As these weather systems pass the airport systems returns to "north flow," Air Traffic Control begins directing aircraft to arrive over downtown San Jose. Learn more about South Flow.
