How the Soldier Field seat and sun data is measured

Every number comes from a USGS lidar survey of the stadium, NOAA solar equations, the Soldier Field section numbering and published row lists. Nothing is estimated from photos.

Sources

Stadium shape: USGS 3D Elevation Program lidar, Illinois 4 County QL1 collection (Cook County), flown over the stadium between 17 April and 26 May 2017, about 28 points per square metre. First-return points gridded to 1 m, noise removed.
Section directions: the section order round the stadium from a ticket map, lined up with the field in the lidar. The east United Club tiers run straight along the east stand, so their sections are spaced evenly along it.
Row lists, the Bears and visitors' sides and covered rows: rateyourseats.com section notes.
Capacity, gates, bag rules, prohibited items, alcohol, cashless, no-alcohol sections, parking, transit and rideshare: chicagobears.com. History and re-entry: soldierfield.com.
Sun: NOAA solar position equations. Weather: ERA5 reanalysis and forecasts via Open-Meteo.

How shade is computed

Each section is sampled on 3 lines (left, centre, right) at every row, 9876 seat points in total. For each point the surrounding stadium surface is scanned in every direction the sun can come from to give a horizon profile. A seat is in direct sun when the sun is higher than that horizon. Games are sampled every 10 minutes for 3.5 hours.

How rows are placed

A line is walked out from the field edge through each section. Each end is one rake from the field wall to the top, shared by the 100s, the 200s and the 300s in that order (0.79 m per row on the open ends). On the west side the 300s and 400s share the big deck (0.71 m per row). The east United Club tiers stand one above the other; the 200 level's open rows in front of the 300 level measure 0.55 m deep, and the 300 level's rows under the suites take the west deck's depth. Rows hidden by the tier above count as covered.

The Media Deck (228 to 246) sits under the front of the west deck, so the lidar never sees it. Its rows continue the 100 level's slope past a walkway; their distances and heights are approximate, and covered rows get no seat view.

How the seat views are made

Each view is drawn from a 3D model built from the lidar, from 1.15 m above the seat (seated eye height), facing the field. Only rows open to the sky get a view.

Limits

The lidar was flown in spring 2017. The last rebuild was in 2003, and we found no section added, removed or renumbered since; the proposed dome and expansion have not been built.
The ticket map is not drawn to scale, so section directions come from it but section edges can be off by a few seats.
Not modelled: the suites, the field-level seats, the Lofts and the Lexus Skyline Suite.
Light poles and video boards thinner than the 1 m grid may be missed.
No seat view for Sections 202 to 203, 216, 228, 230 to 235, 237, 239 to 244, 246, 301 and 317: their rows are under the deck above. Their rows and sun minutes are still shown.

Downloads (CC BY 4.0)

sun-by-section.csv: game, kickoff, section, minutes of sun, shade arrival
sections.json: section geometry and row-by-row sightlines