Constant altitude plan position indicator display for multiple radars

• US 20060202886A1
• Filed: 08/18/2005
• Published: 09/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Mahapatra, Pravas R., Makkapati, Vishnu V.
• Granted Patent: US 7,821,448 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/176
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/426 Scanning radar, e.g. 3D radar G01S13/66 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/87 Combinations of radar systems, e.g. primary radar and secondary radar
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/951 ground based
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/12 Plan-position indicators, i.e. P.P.I.
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/18 Distance-height displays; Distance-elevation displays, e.g. type RHI, type E
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/295 Means for transforming co-ordinates or for evaluating data, e.g. using computers
• 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 system and a method to receive radar data from a plurality of radars and to reduce the data from the plurality of radars to a common universal latitude-longitude coordinate frame. The plurality of radars may be positioned at separate geographical locations and may have one or more overlapping regions. The data may be combined in the one or more overlapping regions.

Claims

1. A system to reduce the data from the plurality of radars to a common universal latitude-longitude coordinate frame, the system comprising:

radar data received from a plurality of radars, the plurality of radars at separate geographical locations and having one or more overlapping radar regions; and

a processor to reduce the data from the plurality of radars to a common universal latitude-longitude coordinate frame and to combine the data in the one or more overlapping radar regions.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a single image display of a group selected from combined radar data in the one or more overlapping regions and individual radar data in the one or more overlapping regions.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is to divide a latitude-longitude interval, spanning fields of view of the plurality of radars, into a plurality of blocks.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein a wind velocity is obtained, at one of the blocks, in three dimensions when there are at least three overlapping radars observing one of the plurality of blocks.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein when there are more than three overlapping radars observing one of the plurality of blocks, the processor uses least squares method to calculate the wind velocity, at the one of the blocks, in three dimensions.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of radars includes a satellite.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein there are one or more coordinates associated with the common universal latitude-longitude coordinate frame, wherein at one of the one or more coordinates there are no overlapping radar regions.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the radar data includes scalar data, and the scalar data obtained at one radar resolution cell is averaged when there are overlapping radar regions at the one radar resolution cell.

9. A system to reduce the data from the plurality of radars to a common universal latitude-longitude coordinate frame, the system comprising:

means for receiving radar data from a plurality of radars, the plurality of radars having one or more overlapping radar coverage regions;

means for determining latitude-longitude coordinates associated with the radar data; and

means for combining the data, in latitude-longitude coordinates, in the one or more overlapping regions.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the means for combining the data in latitude-longitude coordinates includes a processor.

11. A method to reduce the data from the plurality of radars to a common universal latitude-longitude coordinate frame, the method comprising:

receiving radar data from a plurality of radars, the plurality of radars having one or more overlapping radar regions;

determining latitude-longitude coordinates associated with the radar data; and

combining the data in latitude-longitude coordinates in the one or more overlapping regions.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising displaying a single mosaiced image of a group selected from combined radar data in the one or more overlapping regions and individual radar data in the one or more overlapping regions.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising dividing an interval of the latitude-longitude coordinates associated with the radar data into a plurality of blocks.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising obtaining, at one of the blocks, a wind velocity in three dimensions when there are at least three overlapping radars observing one of the blocks.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising using least squares method to calculate the wind velocity, at the one of the blocks, in three dimensions, when there are more than three overlapping radars observing one of the blocks.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprising obtaining, at one of the blocks, a wind velocity in two dimensions when there are at least two overlapping radars observing one of the blocks.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the radar data includes scalar data, the method further comprising averaging the scalar data obtained at one of the coordinates, when there are overlapping radar observations at the one of the coordinates.

18. A computer-readable medium having program instructions to perform a method to reduce the data from the plurality of radars to a common universal latitude-longitude coordinate frame, the method comprising:

receiving radar data from a plurality of radars, the plurality of radars having one or more overlapping radar regions,

determining latitude-longitude coordinates associated with the radar data; and

combining the data in latitude-longitude coordinates in the one or more overlapping regions.

19. A method to reduce the data from the plurality of radars to a common universal latitude-longitude coordinate frame, the method comprising:

automatically determining a number of radars observing a given location in a multi-radar observation situation.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

automatically determining an algorithm to be used for combining multi-radar vector data;

to yield radial velocity alone at a cell, when an observation at the cell is by a single radar;

to yield a two-dimensional wind vector, when the observation at the cell is by two separate radars;

to yield a three-dimensional wind vector, when the observation is by three separate radars; and

to yield a least-squares three-dimensional wind vector, when the observation is by more than three radars.

21. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

determining a position vector, in a latitude-longitude coordinate system, from a given radar of the number of radars to a center of a display block.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

calculating coordinates of a minimum bounding rectangle for radar i, ((λ

_mini, φ

_mini), (λ

_maxi, φ

_maxi)), and calculating coordinates of the minimum bounding rectangle coverage region for all the N radars, ((λ

_min, φ

_min), (λ

max, φ

_max)).

23. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

displaying vector wind fields from data associated with the number of radars by using display blocks and arrows centered on the display blocks.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

combining vector data from the number of radars by prior-averaging individual radial components of the data before synthesizing wind vector over the display block.

25. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

calculating a distance metric d((λ

, φ

), (λ

_i, φ

_i)) and using designated conditions λ

_mini≦

λ

≦

λ

_maxi, φ

_mini≦

φ

≦

φ

_maxi, and d((λ

, φ

), (λ

_i, φ

_i))<

EC_i(0°

), where EC_i(0°

) may be retrieved from a generated first mechanism of CAPPI for the i^th radar to test for coverage of a given coordinate by radar i.

26. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

computing an east-west distance d_EWi and an north-south distance d_NSi from the formulae d_EWi=d((λ

_i, φ

), (λ

_i, φ

_i)) and d_NSi=d((λ

, φ

_i), (λ

_i, φ

_i)) , respectively, of a latitude-longitude location (λ

, φ

) from the radar i; and

retrieving PPI scan converted CAPPI scan line data from the radar i corresponding to coordinates closest to d_EWi and d_NSi.

27. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

linearly averaging reflectivity data available in dBZ units.

28. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

automatically detecting a variability of coverage pattern within a display block among the number of radars within individual display blocks.

29. The method of claim 28 further comprising:

automatically handling a variability of coverage pattern within a display block by considering a largest region with a specific coverage pattern.