Requesting weather data based on pre-selected events

• US 10,700,767 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2016
• Issued: 06/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Wang, Guoqing, Wang, Haiming, Wang, Haifeng, Liang, Danhua
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Dhairya A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kim, Eui H
• Application Number:
  US15/072,210
• Publication Number:
  US 20170272148A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,567 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/951 ground based
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/953 mounted on aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/003 Transmission of data between radar, sonar or lidar systems and remote stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/00 Meteorology
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/02 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 Class Codes: G01W 2001/006 Main server receiving weather information from several sub-stations
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30192 Weather; Meteorology
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0026 located on the ground
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0091 for monitoring atmospheric conditions radar or analogous systems specially adapted for meteorological use G01S13/95; meteorology G01W
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

A ground weather center may transmit information requests that carry at least one meteorological specific triggering command. An airborne system may translate the triggering command into detectable meteorological conditions and may arm the trigger(s) for specific weather sensors accordingly and downlink information upon the airborne system detects the triggering conditions. By using such a triggering command, the airborne system may be able transmit the same amount of valuable information with less bandwidth by reducing the number of redundant downlinked packets.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a computing device on board an aircraft, at least one triggering command, wherein the at least one triggering command comprises;

an identification of a specific meteorological feature, wherein the identification of the specific meteorological feature comprises an identification of a squall line;

a request to downlink an image of the squall line only when a weather radar on board the aircraft captures a predetermined set of convective system data indicative of the squall line;

comparing, by the computing device, the identification of the specific meteorological feature to information stored in a meteorological rule database on-board the aircraft, wherein the meteorological rule database includes, for each specific meteorological feature of a plurality of meteorological features, including the squall line, stored at the meteorological rule database, a set of sensors of one or more sensors on-board the aircraft and ranges of measurements for each sensor of the set of sensors associated with each specific meteorological feature, wherein the set of sensors comprises the weather radar;

translating, by the computing device and based on the comparison, the identification of the squall line into one or more meteorological criteria based on the information in the meteorological rule database;

determining, by the computing device, one or more weather radar trigger conditions for the one or more meteorological criteria based on the information stored at the meteorological rule database and the at least one triggering command, wherein the one or more trigger conditions comprise a specific set of thresholds for the set of sensors;

receiving, by the computing device, a plurality of sensor inputs from the set of sensors on-board the aircraft, wherein the plurality of sensor inputs comprise a series of images captured by the weather radar;

processing, by the computing device, the series of images from the weather radar;

selecting, by the computing device, a first image of the series of images, wherein the first image includes the predetermined set of convective system data of the squall line based on the one or more trigger conditions for the meteorological criteria that indicate a presence of the specific meteorological feature; and

initiating, by the computing device, a downlink of the first image, wherein initiating the downlink of the first image is further in response to determining that at least one non-meteorological criteria is satisfied by at least one of a plurality of non-weather sensors, wherein the non-weather sensor is a datalink capability sensor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the at least one triggering command comprises receiving the at least one triggering command from a ground-based device while the aircraft is in flight.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one triggering command comprises instructions to detect a specific meteorological feature, the method further comprising:

in response to processing the instructions, determining if a geospatial location of the specific meteorological feature is within a range of detection for a planned flight path of the aircraft.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining which of the plurality of weather sensor inputs to include in the portion of the meteorological data;

determining a time to initiate a downlink of at least the portion of the meteorological data; and

transmitting the portion of the meteorological data to a downlink address.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the specific meteorological feature further comprises detecting one or more of:

wind shear;

a thunderstorm system;

a microburst;

an outflow boundary;

a supercell thunderstorm;

a weather front transition boundary;

icing conditions;

a presence of lightning.

6. The method of claim 1,

wherein the one or more sensors comprise one or more weather sensors on-board the aircraft, wherein the one or more weather sensors comprise at least one of a temperature sensor, a wind speed sensor, or a lightning detector.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more meteorological criteria comprises a threshold measurement for one or more of a wind speed, a wind direction, an air pressure, an air temperature, or a pattern on a weather radar display.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the specific meteorological feature further comprises turbulence.

9. An aircraft-based weather system comprising:

one or more processors coupled to a memory;

one or more sensors on board the aircraft;

a communication unit, executed by a first processor of the one or more processors and configured to receive at least one triggering command, wherein the at least one triggering command comprises an identification of a specific meteorological feature, wherein the specific meteorological feature comprises an identification of a squall line; and

a computing device configured to;

compare the identification of the specific meteorological feature to information stored at a meteorological rule database on board the aircraft, wherein the meteorological rule database includes, for each specific meteorological feature of a plurality of meteorological features stored at the meteorological rule database, including the squall line, a set of sensors of the one or more sensors, and ranges of measurements for each sensor of the set of sensors associated with each specific meteorological feature and wherein the set of sensors comprises a weather radar;

translate, based on the comparison, the identification of the specific meteorological feature into one or more meteorological criteria;

determine one or more trigger conditions for the one or more meteorological criteria based on the information stored in the meteorological rule database, wherein the one or more trigger conditions comprise a specific set of thresholds for the set of sensors;

receive sensor inputs from the set of sensors, wherein the sensor inputs comprise a series of images captured by the weather radar;

process the series of images from the weather radar;

select a first image of the series of images, wherein the first image satisfies the one or more trigger conditions for the meteorological criteria that indicate a presence of the specific meteorological feature; and

initiate a downlink of the first image, wherein initiating the downlink of the first image is further in response to determining that at least one non-meteorological criteria is satisfied by at least one of a plurality of non-weather sensors, wherein the non-weather sensors comprise a datalink capability sensor.

10. The aircraft-based weather system of claim 9, wherein to receive the at least one triggering command, the computing device is configured to receive the at least one triggering command from a ground-based device to the aircraft while the aircraft is in flight.

11. The aircraft-based weather system of claim 9, wherein the at least one non-meteorological criteria comprises one or more of:

a quality of a communication channel between the aircraft and a receiving device, an availability of the communication channel between the aircraft and the receiving device, a location of the aircraft, and a time.

12. The aircraft-based weather system of claim 9, wherein the one or more meteorological criteria further comprises one or more of a weather radar reflectivity exceeding a reflectivity threshold, a weather radar image coverage exceeding a coverage threshold, a wind vector gradient being within a wind vector gradient threshold window, a static air temperature being within a static air temperature threshold window, or an air pressure being within an air pressure threshold window.

13. The aircraft-based weather system of claim 9, wherein:

the one or more sensors on-board the aircraft comprise one or more weather sensors, and the one or more weather sensors comprises at least one of a temperature sensor, a wind speed sensor, or a lightning detector; and

the non-weather sensors on board the aircraft comprise at least one of a terrestrial location sensor, a datalink capability sensor, a direction sensor, or an altitude sensor.