METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING IN-FLIGHT WEATHER DATA

• US 20140039733A1
• Filed: 07/31/2012
• Published: 02/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Ren, Liling, Klooster, Joel Kenneth, Tomlinson, Harold Woodruff Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 9,346,556 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/14
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 45/00 Aircraft indicators or protectors not otherwise provided for camouflage F41H3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• 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: Y02T 50/80 Energy efficient operational measures, e.g. ground operations or mission management

Abstract

A method for providing one or more aircraft with weather data during flight includes generating a weather model using a source of weather data. The weather model incorporates flight operations information and performance requirements. The method includes generating a weather message from the weather model. The weather message is generated in a format that is compatible with the aircraft. The method also includes transmitting the weather message to the aircraft during flight of the aircraft.

Claims

17. A method for managing subscription to a weather service that provides aircraft with weather data during flight, the method comprising:

receiving subscription requests that request subscription to the weather service;

recording in a subscription database valid subscriptions to the weather service that are based on the subscription requests;

receiving a weather service request for an aircraft, wherein the weather service request requests weather data from the weather service during flight of the aircraft;

verifying a subscription status of the aircraft by comparing the weather service request with the valid subscriptions in the subscription database; and

providing or rejecting the weather service according to the subscription status of the aircraft.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein receiving subscription requests comprises receiving a subscription request for an aircraft in advance of or simultaneously with receiving a weather service request for the aircraft.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein receiving subscription requests comprises receiving a subscription request from at least one of an aircraft, an aircraft operator entity that controls operation the aircraft, or an air traffic control (ATC) entity.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein recording in a subscription database valid subscriptions to the weather service comprises charging a fee for the subscription that is based on at least one of characteristics of the subscription request, characteristics of the weather service, a volume of service provided, a seasonal adjustment, a time-of-day adjustment, a type of weather message provided, or a number of products being subscribed to.

21. A weather service system for providing one or more aircraft with weather data during flight, the system comprising:

an in-flight weather server (IFWS) comprising an operations specification (OS) module, an airspace objective specification (AOS) module, and a weather processing (WP) module, the WP module being operatively connected to the OS module and the AOS module, the WP module being configured to generate a weather model using a source of weather data, flight operations information received from the OS module, and performance requirements received from the AOS module; and

a weather message generator (WMGS) operatively connected to the IFWS, the WMG being configured to receive the weather model from the IFWS and generate a weather message from the weather model, the WMGS being configured to generate the weather message in a format that is compatible with the aircraft, the WMGS being further configured to transmit the weather message to the aircraft during flight of the aircraft.

1. A method for providing one or more aircraft with weather data during flight, the method comprising:

generating a weather model using a source of weather data, wherein the weather model incorporates flight operations information and performance requirements;

generating a weather message from the weather model, the weather message being generated in a format that is compatible with the aircraft; and

transmitting the weather message to the aircraft during flight of the aircraft.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the weather message to at least one of an air traffic control (ATC) entity or an aircraft operator entity that controls operation of one or more of the aircraft.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a weather model using a source of weather data comprises:

integrating the flight operations information and the performance requirements to determine weather performance requirements;

receiving weather data from the source of weather data; and

generating the weather model according to the weather data and the weather performance requirements.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein integrating the flight operations information and the performance requirements to determine weather performance requirements comprises:

consolidating the flight operations information of the aircraft with flight operations information of an air traffic control (ATC) entity; and

consolidating the performance requirements of the aircraft with performance requirement of the ATC entity.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein receiving weather data from the source of weather data comprises:

monitoring at least one of an input, a change, or an update from the source of weather data;

comparing the at least one of an input, a change, or an update with weather model update criteria derived from the flight operations information and performance requirements; and

updating a weather model.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a weather message in a format that is compatible with the aircraft comprises generating the weather message in a format that is capable of being received by the aircraft and capable of being at least one of automatically uploaded into an airborne automation system of the aircraft or can be automatically displayed to a crew of the aircraft.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a weather message from the weather model comprises:

generating an intermediate weather file by reducing the weather model to a subset of weather data;

using the intermediate weather file to formulate the weather message according to one or more weather message encoding rules of the aircraft.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a weather message from the weather model comprises:

receiving a weather service request for an individual aircraft;

verifying a subscription status of the individual aircraft; and

if the subscription status is effective, generating the weather message from the weather model; and

wherein transmitting the weather message comprises transmitting the weather message at least one of directly to the individual aircraft or to an aircraft operator entity that controls operation of the individual aircraft.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a weather message from the weather model comprises:

receiving a weather service request for a plurality of aircraft;

verifying a subscription status of the plurality of aircraft;

if the subscription status is effective for at least a subset of the plurality of aircraft, generating the weather message using the weather model;

verifying the subscription status of each of the plurality of aircraft; and

if the subscription status is effective for one or more individual aircraft of the plurality of aircraft, transmitting the weather message comprises transmitting the weather message at least one of directly to the one or more individual aircraft or to one or more aircraft operator entities that control operation of the one or more individual aircraft.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a weather message from the weather model comprises:

receiving a weather service request for a plurality of aircraft;

generating the weather message using the weather model; and

attaching a virtual channel number to the weather message; and

wherein transmitting the weather message comprises transmitting the weather message at least one of directly to the plurality of aircraft or to one or more aircraft operator entities that control operation of the plurality of aircraft.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a weather message from the weather model comprises:

receiving a weather service request for a plurality of aircraft controlled by a single aircraft operator entity;

verifying a subscription status of the aircraft operator entity;

if the subscription status is effective for the aircraft operator entity, generating a weather file using the weather model;

transmitting the weather file to the aircraft operator entity;

generating the weather message at least one of at the aircraft operator entity or by accessing a weather message formulation functionality from the aircraft operator entity; and

wherein transmitting the weather message comprises transmitting the weather message to the plurality of aircraft from the aircraft operator entity.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the aircraft are isolated from the source of weather data.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the flight operations information comprise at least one of a specified airspace within which the aircraft are intended to fly, a configuration of the specified airspace, or a type of flight procedure, and wherein the performance requirements comprise at least one of a Required Navigation Performance (RNP) for a flight or a flight procedure of the aircraft, traffic throughput in terms of flight flow rate, a flight profile, a performance based flight profile, a weather model parameter, a weather model specification, a weather performance requirement, or a weather model requirement.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the weather model to at least one of an air traffic control (ATC) or an aircraft operator entity that controls operation of one or more of the aircraft.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a weather model comprises at least one of creating a new weather model or updating an existing weather model.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a weather model using a source of weather data comprises generating a weather model that has the form of at least one of a four dimensional (4D) grid, a three dimensional (3D) grid, a two dimensional (2D) grid, or a one dimensional (1D) sequence.

22. The weather service system of claim 21, wherein the IFWS comprises a model update dispatch (MUD) module that is configured to integrate the flight operations information and the performance requirements to determine weather performance requirements, the WP module being configured to receive weather data from the source of weather data and generate the weather model according to the weather data and the weather performance requirements.

23. The weather service system of claim 21, wherein the WMGS comprises a weather file generator (WFG) module that is configured to create an intermediate weather file by reducing the weather model to a subset of weather data, the WMGS further comprising a weather message formulation module (WMF) that is configured to use the intermediate weather file to formulate the weather message according to one or more weather message encoding rules of the aircraft.

24. The weather service system of claim 21, wherein the WMGS is configured to receive a weather service request for an individual aircraft, verify a subscription status of the individual aircraft, generate the weather message from the weather model if the subscription status is effective, and transmit the weather message at least one of directly to the individual aircraft or to an aircraft operator entity that controls operation of the individual aircraft.

25. The weather service system of claim 21, wherein the WMGS is configured to receive a weather service request for a plurality of aircraft, verify a subscription status of the plurality of aircraft, generate the weather message using the weather model if the subscription status is effective for at least a subset of the plurality of aircraft, verify the subscription status of each of the plurality of aircraft, and, if the subscription status is effective for one or more individual aircraft of the plurality of aircraft, transmit the weather message at least one of directly to the one or more individual aircraft or to one or more aircraft operator entities that control operation of the one or more individual aircraft.

26. The weather service system claim 21, wherein the WMGS is configured to receive a weather service request for a plurality of aircraft controlled by a single aircraft operator entity, verify a subscription status of the aircraft operator entity, generate a weather file using the weather model if the subscription status is effective for the aircraft operator entity, and transmit the weather file to the aircraft operator entity, wherein the aircraft operator entity generates the weather message at least one of at the aircraft operator entity or by accessing a weather message formulation functionality from the aircraft operator entity, and wherein the aircraft operator entity transmits the weather message to the plurality of aircraft.

25-1. The weather service system of claim 21, wherein the WMGS is configured to receive a weather service request for a plurality of aircraft, generate the weather message using the weather model, and attach a virtual channel number to the weather message, the virtual channel number identifying the plurality of aircraft requesting weather service, the WMGS being further configured to transmit the weather message at least one of directly to the plurality of aircraft or to one or more aircraft operator entities that control operation of the plurality of aircraft.