LOUISVILLE — A new program on the Louisville International Airport Web site lets anyone with Internet access point and click his way to flight pattern information previously hard to come by.

        Airport officials say the feature, called AirportMonitor, is good news for those who live nearby and have long complained about the rumbling of aircraft overhead. The $350,000 system was installed as part of the airport's noise compatibility study, which began after two runways were recently added. The system is also being used in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

        “We're looking for opportunities to reduce noise around this airport, and by seeing where the airplanes are flying, day in and day out, working with the airlines, we can develop strategies to reduce that noise,” said Jim DeLong, general manager of the Regional Airport Authority.

        The AirportMonitor resembles a 1980s-era video game, with airplane images moving over a colorful map of the Louisville area. The site, which gives data the public could previously get only from the Federal Aviation Administration, is based on a radar system that picks up signals put out by an aircraft.

        The information is updated about every four seconds. But because of post-Sept. 11 security measures, the site is on a 10-minute delay, said Ron Dunsky, of Connecticut-based Megadata, which developed the program.

        “I think everybody understands and appreciates that this isn't the time to be conveying real-time, extremely detailed data about the airspace over the public Internet,” Mr. Dunsky said. “This type of a view was designed to balance the needs of the community, but on the other hand the needs of safety and security.”

        The nearly live system is helping to ease hostility between airport officials and residents, who have constantly had to deal with the sounds of planes buzzing overhead.

        “I think this is going to be a useful tool,” said John Sistarenik, who lives on Sixth Street in the Old Louisville neighborhood, where much of the criticism of noisy planes has originated. The site “will allow us to center on exceptions, and question those exceptions.”

        The Web site went up last week.

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