Weather radar system and method using data from a lightning sensor

• US 8,089,391 B1
• Filed: 01/27/2009
• Issued: 01/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Inventors: Woodell, Daniel L., Kronfeld, Kevin M.
• Primary Examiner(s): GREGORY, BERNARR E
• Application Number:
  US12/360,651
• Time in Patent Office: 1,071 Days
• Field of Search: 342 26 R- 26 D, 342 52- 58, 342175-182, 342/195, 342/198, 342/450, 342/451, 342/460, 342463-465, 342/351, 702 1- 4, 324/72, 324/72.5, 731/701.6, 731/702.4, 345418-427
• US Class Current: 342/26.B
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/86 Combinations of radar systems with non-radar systems, e.g. sonar, direction finder
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/953 mounted on aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/22 Producing cursor lines and indicia by electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/403 in azimuth, i.e. in the horizontal plane
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/02 Instruments for indicating weather conditions by measuring two or more variables, e.g. humidity, pressure, temperature, cloud cover or wind speed G01W1/10 takes precedence
• 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 weather radar system or method can be utilized to determine a location of a weather hazard for an aircraft. The weather radar system can utilize processing electronics coupled to an antenna. The processing electronics can determine presence of the hazard in response to data related to returns received by the weather radar antenna and data from a lightning sensor. The system can include a display for showing the hazard and its location.

Claims

1. A weather radar processing system comprising:

processing electronics for determining a presence of a hazardous region, the processing electronics receiving weather radar data and lightning detection data, the weather radar data related to the radar returns received by radar electronics, the processing electronics determining a position and size of the hazardous region in response to the weather radar data and the lightning detection data, wherein the weather radar data and the lightning detection data are temporally and spatially correlated when determining the position and the size of the hazardous region.

2. The weather radar processing system of claim 1, wherein the processing electronics to cause the radar electronics to provide a weather radar beam toward the hazardous region in response to the lightning detection data.

3. The weather radar processing system of claim 1, wherein the processing electronics determine disjointed reflectivity regions for spatial correlation.

4. The weather radar processing system of claim 1, wherein the processing electronics provide an electronic representation of a line segment derived from the lightning detection data for spatial correlation.

5. The weather radar processing system of claim 1, wherein the lightning detection data includes radar lightning flash history data and the processing electronics are configured to determine the position and size from the radar lightning flash history data or lightning flash history data correlated with the radar returns.

6. The weather radar processing system of claim 4, wherein the processing electronics determine disjointed reflectivity regions for spatial correlation, wherein the processing electronics identify the hazardous region at least in part by determining if the line segment intersects one of the reflectivity regions.

7. The weather radar processing system of claim 1, wherein fuzzy logic, set theory or probabilistic logic is used by the processing electronics to identify the hazardous region if the segment intersects more than one of the reflectivity regions.

8. The weather radar processing system of claim 1, further comprising:

an on-board lightning sensor for providing signals for the lightning detection data used by the processing electronics.

9. A method for operating a weather radar system on an aircraft, the method comprising:

receiving lightning sensor data;

determining a direction to a region associated with lightning in response to the lighting sensor data; and

providing a command to cause the weather radar system to provide at least one radar beam in the direction to the region.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining, on-board the aircraft, a size and position of a hazardous region using the lightning sensor data and radar returns from the at least one radar beam.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the size and position are determined using spatial and temporal correlation of the lightning sensor data and weather data associated with the radar returns.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the hazardous region is a region having a convective cell.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the radar returns are at least one of:

multi-scan radar returns and volumetric scanning radar returns.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the lightning sensor data is received from an on-board lightning sensor.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

displaying an indication of the hazardous region on a weather radar display, wherein the indication is at least one of a textual symbol and a color.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

providing the indication on the weather radar display using the radar returns and the lightning sensor data.

17. A system for on-board an aircraft and for determining a presence of a hazard for the aircraft, comprising:

a processor communicably coupled to a computer readable medium, the computer readable medium comprising;

instructions for determining a position and size of the hazard based on lightning detection data and weather radar data, wherein the position and size are determined using a correlation of the lightning detection data and the weather data.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the computer medium further comprises:

instructions for causing radar electronics to provide a weather radar beam to the position in response to the lightning detection data.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer medium further comprises:

instructions for detecting and determining a position of a convective cell from a weather radar return obtained in response to the weather radar beam.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the computer medium further comprises:

instructions for calculating an azimuth bias associated with the weather data or the lightning data.