Selective weather notification

• US 8,674,850 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Issued: 03/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Zimmer, Nico, Bayram, Keyvan
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Shirley
• Application Number:
  US13/249,721
• Publication Number:
  US 20120274484A1
• Time in Patent Office: 900 Days
• Field of Search: 340/945, 701/14, 701/32.3, 701/32.4, 701/423, 701428-429
• US Class Current: 340/945
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0091 for monitoring atmospheric conditions radar or analogous systems specially adapted for meteorological use G01S13/95; meteorology G01W

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer-readable storage media provide for selective weather notifications to be made to the crew of an aircraft according to the level of relevance of the weather information to a selected phase of flight of the aircraft. According to embodiments described herein, weather information is received and parsed into weather components. The weather components and corresponding thresholds are used with the selected phase of flight to determine a relevance code for the weather information according to a set of relevance rules. The relevance rules provide a level of relevance of the weather information to the phase of flight and trigger a type of notification according to that level of relevance.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for selectively providing weather notifications to a crew of an aircraft, the computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving weather information and parsing the weather information into weather components;

associating a threshold with each weather component;

determining a relevance code for each of a plurality of predetermined phases of flight according to the threshold of each weather component, wherein weather components during any particular phase of flight have different relevance codes;

determining a target phase of flight of the plurality of predetermined phases of flight associated with the aircraft;

determining a relevance for each weather component based on the corresponding relevance code during the target phase of flight;

and

providing a notification associated with the weather information according to the relevance of at least one weather component for the target phase of flight.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the target phase of flight comprises a current phase of flight, and wherein determining the current phase of flight associated with the aircraft comprises retrieving real-time aircraft data collected from one or more aircraft sensors and utilizing the real-time aircraft data to determine the current phase of flight.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the relevance code comprises a multi-letter code, each letter associated with a flight segment of a planned flight route.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining a notification activation code for the relevance code; and

modifying the relevance code according to the notification activation code.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the notification activation code comprises an indicator that the relevance code is effective or an indicator that the relevance code is not effective, wherein if the notification activation code comprises the indicator that the corresponding relevance code is not effective, then modifying the relevance code according to the notification activation code comprises downgrading the relevance code prior to determining the one or more types of notifications to provide.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising determining a display and signaling level code corresponding to the relevance code, wherein providing the notification associated with the weather information according to the level of relevance for the target phase of flight comprises providing the notification associated with the weather information according to the display and signaling level code.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the notification comprises a textual portion and a graphical portion, wherein at least a portion of the weather information is presented as text in the textual portion and concurrently presented as a graphical representation in the graphical portion, and wherein the graphical representation is visibly identifiable as representing the text.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising utilizing airport data corresponding to a destination airport to transform the weather information into at least one value corresponding to the weather component associated with the destination airport,

wherein determining the relevance for the weather information according to the target phase of flight comprises utilizing the at least one value to select the threshold associated with the weather component and to determine the relevance code associated with the target phase of flight according to the threshold of the weather component, and

wherein providing the notification associated with the weather information according to the relevance for the target phase of flight comprises providing the notification associated with the weather information according to the relevance code for the target phase of flight.

9. A weather information system, comprising:

a weather notification processor;

a memory communicatively coupled to the weather notification processor; and

a weather notification application (i) which executes in the weather notification processor and (ii) which, when executed by the weather notification processor, causes the weather notification computer system to provide relevant weather information to a crew of an aircraft according to a target phase of flight by

receiving weather information and parsing the weather information into weather components;

associating a threshold with each weather component;

determining a relevance code for each of a plurality of predetermined phases of flight according to the threshold of each weather component, wherein weather components during any particular phase of flight have different relevance codes;

determining a target phase of flight of the plurality of predetermined phases of flight associated with the aircraft;

determining a relevance for each weather component based on the corresponding relevance code during the target phase of flight; and

providing a notification associated with the weather information according to the relevance of at least one weather component for the target phase of flight.

10. The weather information system of claim 9, wherein retrieving the relevance code associated with the weather component of the weather information comprises retrieving the relevance code associated with the target phase of flight according to a threshold of the weather component, the threshold selected according to the weather information, and wherein the relevance code comprises a multi-letter code, each letter associated with a flight segment of a planned flight route.

11. The weather information system of claim 10, wherein the weather notification application, when executed by the weather notification processor, further causes the weather notification computer system to provide relevant weather information to the crew of the aircraft according to the target phase of flight by

determining a notification activation code for the relevance code;

modifying the relevance code according to the notification activation code,

wherein providing the notification associated with the weather information according to the level of relevance for the target phase of flight comprises providing the notification associated with the relevance code after modifying the relevance code according to the notification activation code.

12. The weather information system of claim 11, wherein the notification activation code comprises an indicator that the relevance code is effective or an indicator that the relevance code is not effective, wherein if the notification activation code comprises the indicator that the corresponding relevance code is not effective, then modifying the relevance code according to the notification activation code comprises downgrading the relevance code prior to determining the one or more types of notifications to provide.

13. The weather information system of claim 12, wherein the weather notification application, when executed by the weather notification processor, further causes the weather notification computer system to provide relevant weather information to the crew of the aircraft according to the target phase of flight by

determining a display and signaling level code corresponding to the relevance code, wherein providing the notification associated with the weather information according to the level of relevance for the target phase of flight comprises providing the notification associated with the weather information according to the display and signaling level code.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive weather information and parsing the weather information into weather components;

associating a threshold with each weather component;

determining a relevance code for each of a plurality of predetermined phases of flight according to the threshold of each weather component, wherein weather components during any particular phase of flight have different relevance codes;

determine a target phase of flight of the plurality of predetermined phases of flight associated with an aircraft;

determining a relevance for each weather component based on the corresponding relevance code and at least one performance criteria associated with the aircraft during the target phase of flight;

determine a notification method according to the relevance of weather information; and

provide a notification associated with the weather information according to the notification method.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein causing the computer to retrieve the relevance code corresponding to the weather component of the weather information according to the target phase of flight comprises causing the computer to retrieve the relevance code associated with the target phase of flight according to the threshold of the weather component, the threshold selected according to the weather information, and wherein the relevance code comprises a multi-letter code, each letter associated with a flight segment of a planned flight.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein causing the computer to determine the notification method according to the relevance comprises causing the computer to identify a notification activation code associated with a time component of a source of the weather information, utilize the notification activation code to update the relevance code if necessary.