This project was initiated at the request of engineers from Dassault Aviation, who wanted a fast algorithm 🚀 that could take flight data as input and then output a list containing the start and end times of nights detected during the flight, with an accuracy on the order of seconds ⏱️.

It was indeed possible to have multiple nights during the same flight ✈️, as the higher we go, the later the night arrives 🌌, and our test aircraft often changed altitude to test systems.

The algorithm is based on the aircraft's position and altitude to calculate its angle relative to the sun ☀️, in order to determine whether it is in night flight 🌙 or day flight. The algorithm has been optimized to minimize calculation time, which is less than 3 seconds ⏳ for flights containing tens of millions of parameter lines.

The program is currently in production and validated ✅.