Selective NOTAM notification

• US 8,970,399 B1
• Filed: 08/30/2010
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• 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): Khan, Omer S
• Application Number:
  US12/871,412
• Time in Patent Office: 1,646 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: G08B 21/00 Alarms responsive to a single specified undesired or abnormal condition and not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 7/06 using electric transmission , e.g. involving audible and visible signalling through the use of sound and light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0052 for cruising combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value G01C23/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0065 for taking-off
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/025 Navigation or guidance aids radar or analogous systems specially adapted for landing purposes G01S13/913

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer-readable storage media provide for selective Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) notifications to be made to the crew of an aircraft according to the relevance of the NOTAM to a selected phase of flight of the aircraft. According to embodiments described herein, NOTAMs are received and parsed for subject and status codes. The subject and status codes are used with the selected phase of flight to determine a relevance code each NOTAM according to a set of relevance rules. The relevance rules provide a level of relevance of the NOTAM 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 Notice To Airmen (NOTAM) notifications to a crew of an aircraft, the computer-implemented method comprising the following steps:

receiving a plurality of NOTAMs;

assigning a NOTAM subject code to each NOTAM;

assigning a relevance code to each NOTAM subject code for each of a plurality of predetermined phases of flight including at least preflight, takeoff, departure, en route, descent, approach and landing phases of flight of a planned flight route of the aircraft, and wherein each relevance code comprises multiple relevance indicators, each relevance indicator providing an indication of the relevance of the NOTAM subject code corresponding to an airport associated with each of the plurality of predetermined phases of flight of the planned flight route, the multiple relevance indictors comprise multiple letters defining a multi-letter code, each of the multiple letters providing an indication of a relevance of the NOTAM subject code corresponding to the airport during a corresponding phase of flight of the planned flight route;

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

determining the relevance for each of the plurality of NOTAMs according to the relevance code associated with the NOTAM subject code during the target phase of flight; and

providing a notification of one or more of the plurality of NOTAMs according to the relevance for the target phase of flight.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the target phase of flight further comprises a current phase of flight, and wherein determining the current phase of flight associated with the aircraft further 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 determining the relevance for each of the plurality of NOTAMs according to the target phase of flight further comprises retrieving the relevance code corresponding to the target phase of flight, and

wherein providing the notification of one or more NOTAMs according to the relevance for the target phase of flight comprises determining one or more types of notifications to provide according to each relevance code and providing the one or more types of notifications.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the relevance code further comprises a four-letter code such that

a first letter is associated with a departure airport or departure segment of flight,

a second letter is associated with an alternative en route airport or en route segment of flight,

a third letter is associated with an alternative destination airport, and

a fourth letter is associated with a destination airport or arrival segment of flight.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a NOTAM status for each of the plurality of NOTAMs;

determining a notification activation code for each NOTAM status; and

modifying the relevance code according to the notification activation code.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the notification activation code further comprises an indicator that the corresponding NOTAM is effective or an indicator that the corresponding NOTAM is not effective, wherein if the notification activation code comprises the indicator that the corresponding NOTAM is not effective, then the relevance code is modified to downgrade the relevance prior to determining the one or more types of notifications to provide.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the computer-implemented method completes each of the steps at least once during each phase of flight of the aircraft such that the crew of the aircraft is provided with applicable NOTAMs during each phase of flight according to relevance to the phase of flight.

8. A NOTAM notification computer system, comprising:

a NOTAM notification processor;

a memory communicatively coupled to the NOTAM notification processor; and

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

receiving a plurality of NOTAMs,

assigning a NOTAM subject code to each NOTAM,

assigning a relevance code to each NOTAM subject code for each of a plurality of predetermined phases of flight including at least preflight, takeoff, departure, en route, descent, approach and landing phases of flight of a planned flight route of the aircraft, wherein the relevance code comprises multiple relevance indicators, each relevance indicator indicating the relevance of the NOTAM subject code corresponding to an airport associated with each of the plurality of predetermined phases of flight of the planned flight route, the multiple relevance indictors comprise multiple letters defining a multi-letter code, each of the multiple letters providing an indication of the relevance of the NOTAM subject code to an airport during a corresponding phase of flight of the planned flight route,

determining the target phase of flight from the plurality of predetermined phases of flight associated with the aircraft,

retrieving the relevance code for each of a plurality of NOTAM subject codes for each of the plurality of predetermined phases of flight,

determining a relevance for each of the plurality of NOTAMs according to the relevance code associated with the NOTAM subject code during the target phase of flight, and

providing a notification of one or more of the plurality of NOTAMs according to the relevance for the target phase of flight.

9. The NOTAM notification computer system of claim 8, wherein determining the relevance for each of the plurality of NOTAMs according to the plurality of relevance rules and the target phase of flight further comprises retrieving the relevance code corresponding to the target phase of flight, and

wherein providing the notification of one or more NOTAMs according to the relevance for the target phase of flight further comprises determining one or more types of notifications to provide according to each relevance code and providing the one or more types of notifications.

10. The NOTAM notification computer system of claim 8, wherein the relevance code further comprises a four-letter code such that

a first letter is associated with a departure airport or departure segment of flight,

a second letter is associated with an alternative en route airport or en route segment of flight,

a third letter is associated with an alternative destination airport, and

a fourth letter is associated with a destination airport or arrival segment of flight.

11. The NOTAM notification computer system of claim 8, wherein the NOTAM notification application, when executed by the NOTAM notification processor, further causes the NOTAM notification computer system to provide relevant NOTAMs to the crew of an aircraft according to the target phase of flight by

determining a NOTAM status for each of the plurality of NOTAMs;

determining a notification activation code for each NOTAM status; and

modifying the relevance code according to the notification activation code.

12. The NOTAM notification computer system of claim 11, wherein the notification activation code further comprises an indicator that the corresponding NOTAM is effective or an indicator that the corresponding NOTAM is not effective, wherein if the notification activation code comprises the indicator that the corresponding NOTAM is not effective, then the relevance code is modified to downgrade the relevance prior to determining the one or more types of notifications to provide.

13. The NOTAM notification computer system of claim 8, wherein the target phase of flight further comprises a current phase of flight, wherein the NOTAM notification processor and memory are installed within the aircraft, 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 from a plurality of predefined phases of flight.

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 NOTAMs;

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

determining a plurality of relevance codes based on a subject of each of the NOTAMs, each phase of flight assigned corresponding relevance codes for each one of the NOTAMs including at least preflight, takeoff, departure, en route, descent, approach and landing phases of flight of a planned flight route of the aircraft, wherein each relevance code comprises multiple relevance indicators, each relevance indicator indicating the relevance of a subject of one of the NOTAMs corresponding to an airport associated with each of the plurality of predetermined phases of flight of the planned flight route, the multiple relevance indictors comprise multiple letters defining a multi-letter code, each of the multiple letters providing an indication of the relevance the subject of one of the NOTAMs corresponding to the airport during a corresponding phase of flight of the planned flight route;

determine the relevance for one of the NOTAMs according to the corresponding relevance code associated with the NOTAM during the target phase of flight;

determine whether a status of the NOTAM remains effective or is no longer effective;

if no longer effective, determine an updated relevance according to the status of the NOTAM;

determine a notification method according to the updated relevance; and

provide a notification of the NOTAM according to the notification method.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the target phase of flight further comprises a current phase of flight, and wherein causing the computer to determine the current phase of flight associated with the aircraft comprises causing the computer to retrieve real-time aircraft data collected from one or more aircraft sensors and utilize the real-time aircraft data to determine the current phase of flight from a plurality of predefined phases of flight.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein causing the computer to determine the relevance for the NOTAM according to the subject of the NOTAM and according to the target phase of flight further comprises causing the computer to retrieve a relevance code corresponding to the subject of the NOTAM and the target phase of flight from a set of stored relevance rules and to utilize the relevance code to determine a relevance associated with the NOTAM with respect to one or more flight segments of a planned flight route during the target phase of flight.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein causing the computer to determine the updated relevance according to the status of the NOTAM further comprises causing the computer to identify a notification activation code associated with the status of the NOTAM and to maintain the relevance of the NOTAM if the notification activation code indicates that the NOTAM is effective and to downgrade the relevance of the NOTAM if the notification activation code indicates that the NOTAM is no longer effective.