Weather radar integrating system combining ground-based and aircraft-based weather radar data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016266249-A1
Application number	US-201514657996-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 13, 2015
Priority date	Mar 13, 2015
Publication date	Sep 15, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

This disclosure is directed to systems, methods, and devices for integrating weather radar data from both ground-based and aircraft weather radar systems. An example system is configured to receive weather radar data from a first weather radar system. The system is further configured to receive weather radar data from one or more additional weather radar systems. The system is further configured to combine the weather radar data from the first weather radar system and the weather radar data from the one or more additional weather radar systems into a combined weather radar data set. The system is further configured to generate an output based on the combined weather radar data set.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system comprising one or more processors configured to:
receive weather radar data from a first weather radar system; receive weather radar data from one or more additional weather radar systems; combine the weather radar data from the first weather radar system and the weather radar data from the one or more additional weather radar systems into a combined weather radar data set; and generate an output based on the combined weather radar data set.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first weather radar system comprises a ground-based weather radar system, and the one or more additional weather radar systems comprise one or more aircraft weather radar systems.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
determine a region of interest; identify one or more aircraft in flight proximate to the region of interest; and transmit a request for weather radar data to the one or more aircraft, wherein the weather radar data from the one or more aircraft weather radar systems is received in response to the request for weather radar data to the one or more aircraft.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured such that identifying the one or more aircraft in flight proximate to the region of inadequate coverage by the ground-based weather radar system comprises identifying one or more locations of the one or more aircraft via surveillance transmissions of the one or more aircraft.

5 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured such that determining the region of interest comprises determining a region of inadequate coverage by the ground-based weather radar system by comparing coverage by the ground-based weather radar system with a radar coverage threshold across a geographical range.

6 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured such that determining the region of interest comprises being configured to receive an indication via a weather information service indicating a region containing a weather system of interest.

7 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more processors being configured to transmit the request for weather radar data to the one or more aircraft comprises the one or more processors being configured to transmit a request for downlink of data from a three-dimensional volumetric weather radar data buffer of at least one of the one or more aircraft.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first weather radar system comprises a first aircraft weather radar system, and the one or more additional weather radar systems comprise one or more additional aircraft weather radar systems, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
identify one or more leader aircraft operating in or heading toward a region of interest; identify one or more follower aircraft behind and on a similar heading to the two or more leader aircraft; send a request for weather radar data to two or more aircraft weather radar systems including an aircraft weather radar system onboard at least a first aircraft from among the one or more leader aircraft and an aircraft weather radar system onboard at least a second aircraft from among either the one or more leader aircraft and the one or more follower aircraft, wherein receiving the weather radar data from the first weather radar system comprises receiving weather radar data from the aircraft weather radar system onboard the first aircraft from among the one or more leader aircraft and from the aircraft weather radar system onboard the second aircraft from among either the one or more leader aircraft and the one or more follower aircraft, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to transmit the output based on the combined weather radar data set to the one or more follower aircraft.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to communicate the output based on the combined weather radar data set for display at a ground-based aircraft operations system.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to communicate the output based on the combined weather radar data set to one or more aircraft in flight.

11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to communicate the output based on the combined weather radar data set to one or more subscribers.

12 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
determine whether a convective weather structure exists in a region corresponding to the combined weather radar data set; in response to determining that a convective weather structure exists in a region corresponding to the combined weather radar data set, determine whether a non-convective region occurs at a higher altitude above the convective weather structure within an ordinary aircraft flight altitude range; identify an aircraft in flight with a heading toward the convective weather structure; determine a potential change of at least one of heading and altitude for the identified aircraft through the non-convective region above the convective weather structure; and output the potential change of the at least one of heading and altitude.

13 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors being configured to combine the weather radar data from the first weather radar system and the weather radar data from the one or more additional weather radar systems into the combined weather radar data set comprises the one or more processors being configured to combine resolution in overlapping areas of both the weather radar data from the first weather radar system and the weather radar data from the one or more additional weather radar systems.

14 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors being configured to combine the weather radar data from the first weather radar system and the weather radar data from the one or more additional weather radar systems into the combined weather radar data set comprises the one or more processors being configured to generate a weather radar map using the weather radar data from the first weather radar system in areas lacking data from the one or more additional weather radar systems; using the weather radar data from the one or more additional weather radar systems in areas lacking data from the first weather radar system; and using both the weather radar data from the first weather radar system and the weather radar data from the one or more additional weather radar systems in areas with coverage from both the first weather radar system and the one or more additional weather radar systems.

15 . A method comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors, weather radar data from a first weather radar system; receiving, by the one or more processors, weather radar data from one or more additional weather radar systems; combining, by the one or more processors, the weather radar data from the first weather radar system and the weather radar data from the one or more additional weather radar systems into a combined weather radar data set; and generating, by the one or more processors, an output based on the combined weather radar data set.

16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
determining a region of inadequate coverage by the first weather radar system; identifying one or more aircraft in flight proximate to the region of inadequate coverage by the ground-based weather radar syst

Assignees

• Honeywell Int Inc

Inventors

• Kauffman Donald C
• Jongsma Kenneth R

Classifications

• G01W2203/00

  Real-time site-specific personalized weather information, e.g. nowcasting · CPC title

• G01S13/951

  ground based · CPC title

• G01W2001/006

  Main server receiving weather information from several sub-stations · CPC title

• G01W1/02

  Instruments for indicating weather conditions by measuring two or more variables, e.g. humidity, pressure, temperature, cloud cover or wind speed (G01W1/10 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01S13/953

  mounted on aircraft · CPC title