Apparatus and method for windshear data processing
First Claim
1. A radar system for determining a vertical component of a total hazard factor of a microburst, comprising:
- means for scanning the atmosphere at an upper altitude and identifying said microburst;
means for deriving spatial parameters of a non-circularly symmetric velocity model of said identified microburst;
means for determining an upper horizontal outflow velocity of said identified microburst using said non-circularly symmetric velocity model;
means for scanning the atmosphere at a lower altitude;
means for modifying said spatial parameters of said non-circularly symmetric velocity model to correspond to the shape of said identified microburst at said lower altitude;
means for determining a lower horizontal outflow velocity of said identified microburst using said modified non-circularly symmetric velocity model; and
means for computing said vertical component of said total hazard factor from said upper horizontal outflow velocity, said lower horizontal outflow velocity, said modified spatial parameters of said non-circularly symmetric velocity model.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention improves upon conventional windshear data processing techniques in three mutually exclusive aspects. First, the present invention provides an improved method and system for detecting microburst downdraft candidates. The improvement lies in its capability of detecting multiple candidates in range. Because of the added capability to detect multiple candidates in range, the present invention also provides an improved method and system for azimuthal association of the multiple candidates in range to define an accurate locus of headwind and tailwind pairs. Second, the present invention provides an improvement in that it utilizes a non-circularly symmetric spatial model to compute the vertical component of a total hazard factor. Third, the present invention provides an improvement in the accurate detection of small radii microbursts by correcting bias present in the data from which the small radii microbursts may be detected.
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Citations
39 Claims
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1. A radar system for determining a vertical component of a total hazard factor of a microburst, comprising:
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means for scanning the atmosphere at an upper altitude and identifying said microburst; means for deriving spatial parameters of a non-circularly symmetric velocity model of said identified microburst; means for determining an upper horizontal outflow velocity of said identified microburst using said non-circularly symmetric velocity model; means for scanning the atmosphere at a lower altitude; means for modifying said spatial parameters of said non-circularly symmetric velocity model to correspond to the shape of said identified microburst at said lower altitude; means for determining a lower horizontal outflow velocity of said identified microburst using said modified non-circularly symmetric velocity model; and means for computing said vertical component of said total hazard factor from said upper horizontal outflow velocity, said lower horizontal outflow velocity, said modified spatial parameters of said non-circularly symmetric velocity model. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method for determining a vertical component of a total hazard factor of a microburst, comprising:
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radar scanning the atmosphere at an upper altitude and identifying said microburst; deriving spatial parameters of a non-circularly symmetric velocity model of said identified microburst; determining an upper horizontal outflow velocity of said identified microburst using said non-circularly symmetric velocity model; radar scanning the atmosphere at a lower altitude; modifying said spatial parameters of said non-circularly symmetric velocity model to correspond to the shape of said identified microburst at said lower altitude; determining a lower horizontal outflow velocity of said identified microburst using said modified non-circularly symmetric velocity model; and computing said vertical component of said total hazard factor from said upper horizontal outflow velocity, said lower horizontal outflow velocity, and said modified spatial parameters of said non-circularly symmetric velocity model. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A radar system for determining a horizontal outflow velocity of a microburst, comprising:
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means for identifying said microburst; means for deriving an elliptical spacial model of said identified microburst, wherein the boundary of the elliptical spacial model is defined by two separated halves of a circle coupled to each other by two substantially parallel and substantially straight lines; and means for calculating said horizontal outflow velocity from said elliptical spacial model. - View Dependent Claims (12)
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13. A method for determining a horizontal outflow velocity of a microburst, comprising:
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identifying said microburst using a radar system; deriving an elliptical spacial model of said identified microburst, wherein the boundary of the elliptical spacial model is defined by two separated halves of a circle coupled to each other by two substantially parallel and substantially straight lines; and calculating said horizontal outflow velocity from said elliptical spacial model. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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15. A radar system for forming a microburst candidate, comprising:
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means for incrementally scanning the atmosphere in an angular swath having a plurality of angle report points; means for determining, at each of said plurality of angle report points, a peak headwind and a peak tailwind, each having a range from said radar system and a velocity; means for detecting a start point of said microburst candidate; means for detecting a stop point of said microburst candidate by comparing the range and velocity of the peak headwind and peak tailwind determined at a final incremental angle report point with the range and velocity determined at a previous incremental angle report point immediately preceding said final incremental angle report point; and means for designating the width of said microburst candidate as the distance from said start point to said previous incremental angle report point. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
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18. A method for forming a microburst candidate using a radar system, comprising:
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incrementally radar scanning the atmosphere in an angular swath having a plurality of angle report points using a radar system; determining, at each of said plurality of angle report points, a peak headwind and a peak tailwind, each having a range from said radar system and a velocity; detecting a start point of said microburst candidate; detecting a stop point of said microburst candidate, including comparing the range and velocity of the peak headwind and peak tailwind determined at a final incremental angle report point with the range and velocity determined at a previous incremental angle report point immediately preceding said final incremental angle report point; and designating the width of said microburst candidate as the distance from said start point to said previous incremental angle report point. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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21. A radar system for forming a data string record representing a plurality of microburst candidates in range and determining whether each of said plurality of microburst candidates is a valid candidate, comprising:
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antenna scanning means for incrementally scanning the atmosphere in a plurality of angle slices; means for identifying a plurality of headwinds or tailwinds or headwinds and tailwinds in one of said plurality of angle slices; means for writing in said data string record a reference range and a reference velocity for each of said headwind and/or tailwind; means for updating said data string record for each of said plurality of angle slices; means for terminating said data string record; and means for determining whether any of said plurality of microburst candidates represented by said data string record is a valid candidate. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method for forming a data string record representing a plurality of microburst candidates in range and determining whether each of said plurality of microburst candidates is a valid candidate, comprising:
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incrementally scanning the atmosphere in a plurality of angle slices; identifying a plurality of headwinds or tailwinds or headwinds and tailwinds in one of said plurality of angle slices; writing in said data string record a reference range and a reference velocity for each of said headwind and/or tailwind; updating said data string record for each of said plurality of angle slices; terminating said data string record; and determining whether any of said plurality of microburst candidates represented by said data string record is a valid candidate. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A radar system for detecting small outflow radii microbursts, comprising:
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means for incrementally scanning the atmosphere in an angular swath having a plurality of angle report points; means for determining, at each of said plurality of angle report points, the radar radial gradient of wind velocity; means for determining a horizontal hazard factor map of wind velocities; means for estimating bias errors in the determined horizontal hazard factor map; means for correcting bias errors in the determined horizontal hazard factor map; and means for identifying small radii microbursts based upon a horizontal hazard factor as provided in the corrected horizontal hazard factor map.
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39. A method of detecting small outflow radii microbursts, comprising:
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incrementally scanning the atmosphere in an angular swath having a plurality of angle report points; determining, at each of said plurality of angle report points, the radar radial gradient of wind velocity; determining a horizontal hazard factor map of wind velocities; estimating bias errors in the determined horizontal hazard factor map; correcting bias errors in the determined horizontal hazard factor map; and identifying small radii microbursts based upon a horizontal hazard factor as provided in the corrected horizontal hazard factor map.
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Specification