Route planning using ground threat prediction

A computer readable medium, storing executable instructions for determining an optimal flight path for an aircraft through a region of interest, such that when provided to and executed by a computer processor, the executable instructions are configured to perform the following functions:

• defining a reroute region, which provides extreme boundaries for an optimal flight path, around an initial flight path for the aircraft;
• defining a plurality of subregions within the reroute region, each of the plurality of subregions representing one of a plurality of representative times at which the airplane is expected to arrive at an associated location on the initial flight path;
• predicting the position of at least one threat at each of the plurality of representative times;
• assigning a cost to each cell in each subregion according to the predicted position of the at least one threat source at the representative time associated with the subregion;
• and
• determining the optimal path as a path through the reroute region passing through each of the plurality of subregions that has a lowest total cost.

A system for determining an optimal flight path for an aircraft through a region of interest, comprising:

• a map initialization component configured to define a reroute region, which provides extreme boundaries for an optimal flight path, around an initial flight path for the aircraft and a plurality of subregions within the reroute region, each of the plurality of subregions representing one of a plurality of representative times at which the airplane is expected to arrive at an associated location on the initial flight path;
• a threat prediction component configured to predict the position of at least one threat at each of the plurality of representative times;
• a cost mapping component configured to assign a cost to each cell in each subregion according to the predicted position of the at least one threat source at the representative time associated with the subregion and at least one geographical feature of the region of interest;
• and
• a path optimization component configured to determine the optimal path as a path through the reroute region having a lowest total cost.