Ground station sensing of weather around an aircraft

A radar system for weather sensing and aircraft tracking, comprising:

• a ground-based radar that is configured to scan a volume of space associated with a particular aircraft for detecting a weather event in the volume of space;
• and
• an electronic control system adapted to track the particular aircraft via tracking data associated with the particular aircraft, and adapted to detect the weather event via weather data associated with signals from the ground-based radar;
• wherein the control system is configured to control the ground-based radar to adjust the scan of the volume of space in response to at least the tracking data associated with the particular aircraft being tracked;
• wherein the volume of space is defined by an extent of the scan by the ground-based radar;
• and
• wherein, (i) in response to at least the tracking data associated with the particular aircraft, the control system is configured to control the ground-based radar to adjust the extent of the scan to thereby adjust the volume of space associated with the particular aircraft;
• and/or (ii) wherein, in response to at least the tracking data associated with the particular aircraft, the control system is configured to control the ground-based radar to adjust a periodicity of the scan of the volume of space.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing program code which when executed by one or more processors performs at least the steps of:

• controlling a ground-based radar to scan the volume of space associated with the particular aircraft for detecting the weather event in the volume of space;
• tracking the particular aircraft via tracking data associated with the particular aircraft;
• detecting the weather event via weather data associated with signals from the ground-based radar;
• and
• modifying the controlling of the ground-based radar to adjust the scan of the volume of space by the ground-based radar, in response to at least the tracking data associated with the particular aircraft being tracked.

A method of tracking a particular aircraft and determining a weather event in a volume of space associated with the particular aircraft, comprising:

• controlling a ground-based radar to scan the volume of space associated with the particular aircraft for detecting the weather event in the volume of space;
• tracking the particular aircraft via tracking data associated with the particular aircraft;
• detecting the weather event via weather data associated with signals from the ground-based radar;
• and
• modifying the controlling of the ground-based radar to adjust the scan of the volume of space by the ground-based radar, in response to at least the tracking data associated with the particular aircraft being tracked.