PREDICTION AND WARNING OF TRANSPORTED TURBULENCE IN LONG-HAUL AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS

• US 20160293021A1
• Filed: 06/15/2016
• Published: 10/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wxops, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Wxops, Inc.
• Inventors: SHIPLEY, Scott T., SPENCE, Mark D., ELLROD, Gary P.
• Granted Patent: US 9,564,055 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/003 Flight plan management
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0039 Modification of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0052 for cruising combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value G01C23/00
• 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: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

An aviation flight planning system is used for predicting and warning for intersection of flight paths with transported meteorological disturbances, such as transported turbulence and related phenomena. Sensed data and transmitted data provide real time and forecast data related to meteorological conditions. Data modelling transported meteorological disturbances are applied to the received transmitted data and the sensed data to use the data modelling transported meteorological disturbances to correlate the sensed data and received transmitted data. The correlation is used to identify transported meteorological disturbances source characteristics, and identify predicted transported meteorological disturbances trajectories from source to intersection with flight path in space and time. The correlated data are provided to a visualization system that projects coordinates of a point of interest (POI) in a selected point of view (POV) to displays the flight track and the predicted transported meteorological disturbances warnings for the flight crew.

Claims

1. An aviation flight planning system for predicting and warning for intersection of flight paths with transported meteorological disturbances comprising transported turbulence and related phenomena, comprising:

a coordinating computer located on board an aircraft receiving sensed data from sensing equipment on board the aircraft providing real time sensed information related to meteorological conditions, and transmitted data received on board the aircraft, providing real time and forecast data related to meteorological conditions;

a flight plan information store communicatively connected to the coordinating computer;

a transported meteorological disturbances model store providing the coordinating computer with data modelling transported meteorological disturbances, with the received transmitted data and the sensed data to use the data modelling transported meteorological disturbances to correlate the sensed data and received transmitted data to identify transported meteorological disturbances source characteristics, identify predicted transported meteorological disturbances trajectories from source to intersection with a flight path indicated by the flight plan in space and time and communicate relevant aspects of the predicted transported meteorological disturbances trajectories;

communications to return observations from flight deck for verification and analysis; and

a visualization system configured to;

acquire at least one flight track as a focus object;

acquire at least one transported turbulence prediction as a focus object;

use focus object information to display at least a plurality of the focus objects;

subdivide each focus object into a plurality of object components;

use a transparent interface to calculate coordinates of components of the focus object in a coordinate system of the visualization system, said focus object mutually shared by the visualization system and the interface;

receive coordinates of a point of interest (POI) in a projection of the visualization system;

project the POI in a selected point of view (POV) using the calculated coordinates and the received coordinates of the POI in the projection of the visualization system of N-dimensional features in the visualization, independent of user point of view; and

display the flight track and the relevant aspects of the predicted transported meteorological disturbances trajectories as warnings for the flight crew.

2. The aviation flight planning system according to claim 1, wherein the transported meteorological disturbance comprises transported turbulence.

3. The aviation flight planning system according to claim 1, wherein the transported meteorological disturbance comprises related phenomena comprising phenomena having similar transport characteristics to transported turbulence, and comprises volcanic gases and aerosols, radionuclide plumes, and tracers deliberately inserted to simulate a hazard source.

4. The aviation flight planning system according to claim 1, wherein the relevant aspects of the predicted transported meteorological disturbances trajectories comprise strength and modification of hazard is predicted or observed during transport from source to point of intersection.

5. The aviation flight planning system according to claim 1, wherein the visualization system identifies regions for potential source areas by the flight plan and potential transport paths.

6. The aviation flight planning system according to claim 1, wherein:

the visualization system presents information about the focus objects with or without user interaction; and

the visualization system displays the relevant aspects of the predicted transported meteorological disturbances trajectories as warnings for the flight crew without user interaction and automatically generates an alert upon detection of an intersection of the flight track with transported turbulence within a predetermined time period.

7. The aviation flight planning system according to claim 1, wherein flight decks comprise flight decks for aircraft consisting of the group selected from manned, remote piloted vehicles, and automated unmanned systems.

8. The aviation flight planning system according to claim 1, wherein the transmitted data received on board the aircraft comprises data selected from the group selected from observations, modeling, source strength, time range of occurrence, and altitude for injection of hazardous material or precursors.

9. The aviation flight planning system according to claim 1, further comprising an archive data store used to store observations of hazard strength at the intersection of flight paths with transported meteorological disturbances or waypoints characterizing hazard behavior and frequency of occurrence.

10. A method for predicting and warning of intersection of flight paths with transported meteorological disturbances comprising transported turbulence and related phenomena, and accounting for source characteristics, transport mechanism and modification of hazard during transport, and identification of the point of intersection with an aircraft flight path, the method comprising:

sensing data from sensing equipment on board the aircraft providing real time sensed information related to meteorological conditions, and receiving transmitted data providing real time and forecast data related to meteorological conditions;

storing flight plan information;

using a transported meteorological disturbances model to provide data modelling transported meteorological disturbances along the flight path indicated by the flight plan information;

analyzing the sensed data and the transmitted data using the data modelling transported meteorological disturbances to correlate the sensed data and transmitted data to identify transported meteorological disturbances source characteristics, identify predicted transported meteorological disturbances trajectories from source to intersection with flight path in space and time and communicate relevant aspects of the predicted transported meteorological disturbances trajectories; and

providing visualization of the analyzed data by;

acquiring at least one flight track as a focus object;

acquiring at least one transported turbulence prediction as a focus object;

using focus object information to display the focus objects;

subdividing each focus object into a plurality of object components;

using a transparent interface to calculate coordinates of components of the focus object in a coordinate system of the visualization system, said focus object mutually shared by the visualization system and the interface;

receiving coordinates of a point of interest in a projection of the visualization system;

projecting the point of interest (POI) in a selected point of view (POV) using the calculated coordinates and the received coordinates of the point of interest in the projection of the visualization system of N-dimensional features in the visualization, independent of user point of view; and

displaying the flight track and the relevant aspects of the predicted transported meteorological disturbances trajectories as warnings for the flight crew.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising providing source characterization by a combination of observations and modeling, the source characterization comprising source strength, time range of occurrence, and altitude for injection of hazard material or precursors.

12. The method according to claim 10, further comprising predicting strength and modification of hazard during transport from source to point of intersection.

13. The method according to claim 10, further comprising archiving observations of hazard strength at intersections and using the archived observations to characterize hazard behavior and frequency of occurrence.

14. The method according to claim 10, wherein the transported meteorological disturbance comprises transported turbulence.

15. The method according to claim 10, wherein the transported meteorological disturbance comprises related phenomena comprising phenomena having similar transport characteristics to transported turbulence, and comprises volcanic gases and aerosols, radionuclide plumes, and tracers deliberately inserted to simulate a hazard source.

16. The method according to claim 10, wherein the relevant aspects of the predicted transported meteorological disturbances trajectories comprise strength and modification of hazard is predicted or observed during transport from source to point of intersection.

17. The method according to claim 10, wherein the visualization of the analyzed data comprises identifying regions for potential source areas by the flight plan and potential transport paths.

18. The method according to claim 10, wherein the visualization of the analyzed data comprises:

presenting information about the focus objects with or without user interaction; and

displaying the relevant aspects of the predicted transported meteorological disturbances trajectories as warnings for the flight crew without user interaction and automatically generates an alert upon detection of an intersection of the flight track with transported turbulence within a predetermined time period.

19. The method according to claim 10, wherein the received transmitted data comprises data selected from the group selected from observations, modeling, source strength, time range of occurrence, and altitude for injection of hazardous material or precursors.

20. A computer program product for predicting and warning of intersection of flight paths with transported meteorological disturbances comprising transported turbulence and related phenomena, and accounting for source characteristics, transport mechanism and modification of hazard during transport, and identification of the point of intersection with an aircraft flight track, the computer program product comprising:

instructions to sense data from sensing equipment on board the aircraft providing real time sensed information related to meteorological conditions, and to receive transmitted data providing real time and forecast data related to meteorological conditions;

instructions to use a transported meteorological disturbances model to provide data modelling transported meteorological disturbances along a flight plan;

instructions to analyze the sensed data and the transmitted data using the data modelling transported meteorological disturbances to correlate the sensed data and transmitted data to identify transported meteorological disturbances source characteristics, identify predicted transported meteorological disturbances trajectories from source to intersection with a flight path indicated by the flight plan in space and time and communicate relevant aspects of the predicted transported meteorological disturbances trajectories; and

instructions to provide visualization of the analyzed data by;

acquire at least one flight track as a focus object;

acquire at least one transported turbulence prediction as a focus object;

use focus object information to display the focus objects;

subdivide each focus object into a plurality of object components;

use a transparent interface to calculate coordinates of components of the focus object in a coordinate system of the visualization system, said focus object mutually shared by the visualization system and the interface;

receive coordinates of a point of interest in a projection of the visualization system;

project the point of interest (POI) in a selected point of view (POV) using the calculated coordinates and the received coordinates of the point of interest in the projection of the visualization system of N-dimensional features in the visualization, independent of user point of view; and

display the flight track and the relevant aspects of the predicted transported meteorological disturbances trajectories as warnings for the flight crew.

21. The program product of claim 20, further comprising instructions to store measurements and observations taken by aircraft instrumentation or by manual observation in a format suitable for archival and analysis.