System and method for ice detection

• US 9,244,166 B1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 01/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Finley, Jeffery A., Kronfeld, Kevin M., Koenigs, Gregory J., Robertson, Roy E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sotomayor, John B
• Assistant Examiner(s): Windrich, Marcus
• Application Number:
  US13/841,893
• Time in Patent Office: 1,047 Days
• Field of Search: 342 26 R- 26 D
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/953 mounted on aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/025 involving the transmission of linearly polarised waves
• 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: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

A hazard warning or weather radar system or method can be utilized to determine a location of ice. The system and method can be used in an aircraft. The aircraft weather radar system can include a radar antenna and a processor. The radar antenna receives radar returns. The processor can: 1. identify on a display a region of potential ice associated with a blow off region in response to the radar returns, temperature data, and wind data; 2. identify on a display a region of potential ice associated with a stratiform region in response to radar returns, temperature data, and a history of convective cells in the stratiform region; or 3. perform both 1 and 2.

Claims

1. An aircraft hazard warning system, comprising:

an electronic processing system for determining a presence of ice crystals, the processing system being configured to receive radar reflectivity data and temperature data, the processing system being configured to determine an ice crystal warning by;

1. determining a size of a convective cell using the radar reflectivity data and temperature data and determining a blow off area associated with the convective cell in response to the size and a wind direction parameter, the blow off area being an area where ice crystals migrate due to wind;

or

2. determining a size of a stratiform region and determining a presence of a convective cell previously in the stratiform region; and

3. wherein the radar reflectivity data comprises reflectivity data corresponding to at least two frequencies from a multi-frequency radar system, and wherein the processing system is configured to determine the ice crystal warning based at least in part on a comparison of the reflectivity data corresponding to the at least two frequencies from the multi-frequency radar;

or

4. wherein the radar reflectivity data comprises at least two polarization diverse radar signals received from a polarization diversity radar system, and wherein the processing system is configured to determine the ice crystal warning based at least in part on a comparison of the at least two polarization diverse radar signals.

2. The aircraft hazard warning system of claim 1, wherein the ice crystal warning is provided as a speckled yellow or red region at least partially corresponding to the blow off area.

3. The aircraft warning system of claim 1, wherein the ice crystal warning is provided as a speckled yellow or red region, and is provided at least partially in response to the size of the stratiform region.

4. The aircraft warning system of claim 1, wherein the ice crystal warning is provided at least partially in response to the size of the stratiform region and a number of embedded cell cores in the stratiform region, wherein the embedded core cells are convective cells in the stratiform region detected using vertical structure analysis.

6. The aircraft hazard warning system of claim 1, wherein the wind direction parameter is provided by a flight management system.

7. The aircraft hazard warning system of claim 1, wherein the processing system is part of an avionic weather radar system.

8. The aircraft hazard warning system of claim 1, wherein the ice crystal warning is provided as an icon.

9. The aircraft hazard warning system of claim 1, wherein the radar reflectivity data comprises reflectivity data corresponding to at least two frequencies from a multi-frequency radar system, and wherein the processing circuit is configured to determine the ice crystal warning based at least in part on a comparison of the reflectivity data corresponding to the at least two frequencies from the multi-frequency radar system.

10. The aircraft hazard warning system of claim 1, wherein the radar reflectivity data comprises at least two polarization diverse radar signals received from a polarization diversity radar system, and wherein the processing circuit is configured to determine the ice crystal warning based at least in part on a comparison of the at least two polarization diverse radar signals.

11. The aircraft hazard warning system of claim 1, wherein the processing system is configured to receive data from one or more off-aircraft sources, and wherein the processing circuit is configured to determine the ice crystal warning based at least in part on the data received from the one or more off-aircraft sources.

13. The aircraft hazard warning system of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is configured to determine a convective level of the convective cell based on at least one of an area and a volume of reflectivity.

5. An aircraft hazard warning system, comprising:

an electronic processing system being configured to determine a presence of ice crystals, the processing system being configured to receive radar reflectivity data and temperature data, the processing system being configured to determine an ice crystal warning by;

1. determining a size of a convective cell using the radar reflectivity data and temperature data and determining a blow off area associated with the convective cell in response to the size and a wind direction parameter, the blow off area being an area where ice crystals migrate due to wind;

or

2. determining a size of a stratiform region and determining a presence of a convective cell previously in the stratiform region, wherein the wind direction parameter is computed by using a track angle of an aircraft, a heading of the aircraft, and an airspeed of the aircraft.

12. An aircraft hazard warning system, comprising:

an electronic processing system configured to determine a presence of ice crystals, the processing system styled to receive radar reflectivity data and temperature data, the processing system configured to determine an ice crystal warning by;

1. determining a size of a convective cell using the radar reflectivity data and temperature data and determining a blow off area associated with the convective cell in response to the size and a wind direction parameter, the blow off area being an area where ice crystals migrate due to wind;

or

2. determining a size of a stratiform region and determining a presence of a convective cell previously in the stratiform region, wherein the processing system is configured to cause an icing assessment based on the ice crystal warning to be transmitted to an off-aircraft source, for generation of a global icing forecast based on the icing assessment and data received from a plurality of other aircraft hazard warning systems.

14. An aircraft hazard warning system, comprising:

an electronic processing system configured to determine a presence of ice crystals, the processing system configured to receive radar reflectivity data and temperature data, the processing system configured to determine an ice crystal warning by;

1. determining a size of a convective cell using the radar reflectivity data and temperature data and determining a blow off area associated with the convective cell in response to the size and a wind direction parameter, the blow off area being an area where ice crystals migrate due to wind;

or

2. determining a size of a stratiform region and determining a presence of a convective cell previously in the stratiform region, wherein the ice crystal warning comprises an indicator showing a plurality of graduated icing levels on an electronic display.

15. An aircraft hazard warning system, comprising:

an electronic processing system configured to determine a presence of ice crystals, the processing system configured to receive radar reflectivity data and temperature data, the processing system configured to determine an ice crystal warning by;

1. determining a size of a convective cell using the radar reflectivity data and temperature data and determining a blow off area associated with the convective cell in response to the size and a wind direction parameter, the blow off area being an area where ice crystals migrate due to wind;

or

2. determining a size of a stratiform region and determining a presence of a convective cell previously in the stratiform region, wherein the processing system is configured to determine the ice crystal warning based at least in part on a predictive icing assessment, wherein the predictive icing assessment is based on a likelihood of icing indicated by weather data associated with a region being analyzed by the processing system.

16. A method of displaying an indication of a presence of ice on an aircraft display in an avionics system, the method comprising:

receiving radar reflectivity data from a radar system and temperature data from a temperature sensor and determining a presence of at least one convective cell using an electronic processor; and

providing the indication on the aircraft display at least in part in response to a wind parameter from a wind detector and a size of the convective cell, wherein the presence of the convective cell is determined using atmospheric temperature data comprising one or more of;

local temperature, local temperature variations with time, local variations with altitude, remotely determined temperature, and remotely determined temperature gradients in either range or altitude.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the wind parameter is a high altitude parameter.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the wind parameter comprises a speed and a direction.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein vertical structure analysis data is used to determine the presence of the convective cell and comprises one or more of:

vertical height, vertical growth rate, vertical history assessment, assessment of whether the aircraft path will intersect a portion of a weather cell, and cell maturity.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein lightning data is used to determine the presence of the convective cell.

21. A method of displaying an indication of a presence of ice on an aircraft display in an avionics system, the method comprising:

receiving radar reflectivity data from a radar system and temperature data from a temperature sensor and determining a presence of at least one convective cell using an electronic processor; and

providing the indication on the aircraft display at least in part in response to a wind parameter from a wind detector and a size of the convective cell, wherein the presence of the convective cell is determined by using the temperature data and the reflectivity data to determine an amount of liquid water at altitudes where a temperature is below the freezing point.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the temperature data comprises atmospheric temperature data comprising one or more of:

local temperature, local temperature variations with time, local variations with altitude, remotely determined temperature, and remotely determined temperature gradients in either range or altitude.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

determining a presence of at least one stratiform rain area using the reflectivity data and the temperature data;

determining whether at least one convective cell was present in the stratiform rain area; and

providing the indication at least in part in response to a size of the stratiform rain area.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the indication is provided in response to a number of convective cells being formerly present in the stratiform rain area.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the indication is a yellow or red speckled region.

26. An aircraft weather radar system, comprising:

a radar antenna for receiving radar returns; and

a processor for;

1. identifying on a display a region of potential ice associated with a blow off region, the blow off region being an area where ice crystals migrate due to wind, a size and location of the blow off region being determined in response to the radar returns, temperature data, and wind data from a wind detector.

27. An aircraft weather radar system, comprising:

a radar antenna for receiving radar returns; and

a processor for;

1. identifying on a display a region of potential ice associated with a blow off region in response to the radar returns, temperature data, and wind data;

or

2. identifying on a display a region of potential ice associated with a stratiform region in response to the radar returns, temperature data, and a history of convective cells in the stratiform region, wherein the processor is configured to perform both;

1. identifying on a display a region of potential ice associated with a blow off region in response to radar returns, temperature data, and wind data; and

2. identifying on a display a region of potential ice associated with a stratiform region in response to radar returns, temperature data, and a history of convective cells in the stratiform region.

28. The aircraft weather radar system of claim 27, wherein the indication is a yellow or red speckled region.

29. An aircraft hazard warning system, comprising:

an onboard multi-frequency radar system or an onboard polarization diversity radar system;

an electronic processing system configured to determine a presence of ice crystals, the processing system being configured to receive radar reflectivity data and temperature data, wherein the radar reflectivity data comprises reflectivity data corresponding to at least two frequencies from the multi-frequency radar system or at least two polarization diverse radar signals received from the polarization diversity radar system, the processing system being configured to determine an ice crystal warning by;

comparing the reflectivity data corresponding to the at least two frequencies from the multi-frequency radar or comparing the at least two polarization diverse radar signals from the polarization diversity radar system.

30. The aircraft hazard warning system of claim 29, comprising the onboard multi-frequency radar system and the processing system is configured to compare the reflectivity data corresponding to the at least two frequencies from the multi-frequency radar.

31. The aircraft hazard warning system of claim 29, comprising the polarization diversity radar system and the processing system is configured to compare the reflectivity data corresponding to the at least two polarization diverse radar signals from the polarization diversity radar system.