Airborne based monitoring

• US 20050278120A1
• Filed: 04/25/2005
• Published: 12/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Manfred, Mark, Brama, Anthony Vernon, Taylor, Lucius Orville Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 7,069,147 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/2
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 2203/00 Application of thermometers in cryogenics
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/08 Adaptations of balloons, missiles, or aircraft for meteorological purposes; Radiosondes transmission of measurements G01D; transmitting circuits H04B; balloons in general B64B; aeroplanes in general B64D; missiles in general F42B15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/10 Devices for predicting weather conditions computers per se G06; display devices G09
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 2001/003 Clear air turbulence detection or forecasting, e.g. for aircrafts

Abstract

A weather monitoring and prediction system that uses a fleet of aircraft to obtain data. Each aircraft has a local air data system that facilitates the measurement, recordation, and transmittal of local atmospheric data such as barometric pressure, and the corresponding temporal, positional, and altitudinal data. The data is electronically transmitted from each aircraft to a ground based processing system where it is stored. The data may then be transmitted to subscribing users such as aircraft, other weather data systems or to air traffic control centers in either a compiled form or in a raw form. Another embodiment also provides for measuring barometric pressure as a function of altitude at an in-flight aircraft.

Claims

1. An apparatus for measuring barometric pressure as a function of altitude at an in-flight aircraft comprising:

an atmospheric pressure transducer for measuring outside air pressure;

a secondary altimeter for determining altitude without regard to atmospheric pressure;

a server for receiving signals from the transducer and altimeter; and

a transceiver for transmitting recorded data from the server to a ground-based station while the airplane is in-flight.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is placed aboard each of a plurality of aircraft.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the secondary altimeter is a GPS receiver.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the server comprises:

data storage for recording a recordset of data, wherein each recordset includes a datapoint from the transducer corecorded with a datapoint from the altimeter.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein each recordset further includes a datapoint representing a time of measurement.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein each recordset further includes a datapoint representing a position of the aircraft at the time of measurement.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an output device for advising a user of variance between the recorded signals from the transducer and altimeter.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a local wireless communication network for transmitting recorded data from the atmospheric pressure transducer to the server.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the atmospheric pressure transducer is a digital static air-pressure transducer.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the secondary altimeter is a radio altitude sensor.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the radio altitude sensor is configured to correlate a radio measurement of aircraft height-above-ground to a stored set of terrain elevation data.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the transceiver for transmitting recorded data from the server to a ground-based station while the airplane is in flight includes:

Electronic transmission equipment for autonomously transmitting digital data.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the transceiver substantially overcomes data bandwidth limitations by implementing a data transfer technique selected from the group consisting of message prioritization and group transmission delay.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a set of tertiary sensors for measuring static air temperature, wind speed, and wind direction,

wherein the server is configured to corecord signals from the transducer and altimeter with those from the tertiary sensors.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the recorded data provides an indication of clear-air turbulence.

16. A weather monitoring system within an airplane comprising:

a local air data system for generating data on local atmospheric conditions, wherein the local air data systems comprises a set of input devices for obtaining data on local atmospheric conditions, and wherein data on local atmospheric conditions comprises a set of data indicative of at least one atmospheric condition selected from the group of static air temperature, wind speed, wind direction, and barometric pressure;

a radiofrequency altitude sensor for determining altitude;

a position sensor for determining location,

data storage for recording a recordset having at least one local atmospheric condition datum corecorded with an altitude datum and a position datum; and

a transceiver station for transmitting the recordset to a ground-based receiver.

17. The weather monitoring system of claim 16, wherein at least one of the input devices is configured to communicate with the data storage over a wireless local area network.

18. The weather monitoring system of claim 16, wherein one data from at least one of the input devices provides an indication of turbulence.

19. The weather monitoring system of claim 16, wherein at least one of the input devices is configured to measure normal acceleration.

20. A method of providing an indication of clear-air turbulence comprising:

corecording an atmospheric pressure datum and an altitude datum, wherein the altitude datum is a measure determined via a radiofrequency altitude meter;

determining a variance between the atmospheric pressure datum and the altitude datum; and

providing the variance as an indication of clear-air turbulence.