Optimized weather and threat depiction based on aircraft flight plan
AssigneeRockwell Collins, Inc.
InventorsVenkata A. Sishtla, Jacob G. Teague, Krystina Rodriguez
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A weather depiction system for an aircraft is disclosed. A radar is configured to scan a surrounding environment of the aircraft and provide weather data. An aircraft computing device is configured to: detect weather patterns using the weather data, receive a flight trajectory of the aircraft from a flight management system (FMS), compare the flight trajectory to an altitude of each of the weather patterns, identify the weather pattern as relevant or non-relevant based on the comparison, and present symbols corresponding to the relevant weather patterns on the weather display and exclude symbols corresponding to the non-relevant weather patterns on the weather display.
Claims15
A weather depiction system for an aircraft, comprising:
- a radar configured to scan a surrounding environment of the aircraft and provide weather data;
- and
- an aircraft computing device including one or more processors configured to execute program instructions causing the one or more processors to:
- detect a plurality of weather patterns using the weather data, wherein each of the weather patterns is detected at a detected altitude, and wherein the detected altitude is defined as a top of each of the weather patterns during a descent mode of the aircraft, or as a bottom of each of the weather patterns during an ascent mode of the aircraft;
- receive a flight trajectory of the aircraft from a flight management system (FMS);
- for each of the weather patterns;
- responsive to the detected altitude of a weather pattern being within a threshold distance in elevation from the flight trajectory, identify the weather pattern as one of a plurality of relevant weather patterns;
- and
- responsive to the detected altitude of the weather pattern being outside the threshold distance in elevation from the flight trajectory, identify the weather pattern as one of a plurality of non-relevant weather patterns;
- and
- present symbols corresponding to the plurality of relevant weather patterns on a top-down flight plan view of a weather display, wherein the symbols comprise weather radar patterns comprising graphical images in colors corresponding to a severity of the weather,
- exclude symbols corresponding to the plurality of non-relevant weather patterns from the weather display responsive to the aircraft being in a cruising mode.
A weather depiction method for an aircraft, comprising:
- scanning, using a radar, a surrounding environment of the aircraft and providing weather data;
- detecting a plurality of weather patterns using the weather data, wherein each of the weather patterns is detected at a detected altitude, and wherein the detected altitude is defined as a top of each of the weather patterns during a descent mode of the aircraft, or as a bottom of each of the weather patterns during an ascent mode of the aircraft;
- using an aircraft computing device, receiving a flight trajectory of the aircraft from a flight management system (FMS);
- for each of the weather patterns:
- responsive to the detected altitude of a weather pattern being within a threshold distance in elevation from the flight trajectory, identifying the weather pattern as one of a plurality of relevant weather patterns;
- and
- responsive to the detected altitude of the weather pattern being outside the threshold distance in elevation from the flight trajectory, identifying the weather pattern as one of a plurality of non-relevant weather patterns;
- presenting symbols corresponding to the relevant weather patterns on a top-down flight plan view of a weather display, wherein the symbols comprise weather radar patterns comprising graphical images in colors corresponding to a severity of the weather;
- and
- exclude symbols corresponding to the plurality of non-relevant weather patterns from the weather display responsive to the aircraft being in a cruising mode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.