Systems and methods for aircraft to aircraft exchange of radar information over low bandwidth communication channels

An aircraft to aircraft weather radar information communication system, comprising:

• an onboard weather radar system on a first aircraft that generates weather information based on detected weather;
• an onboard processing system coupled to the onboard weather radar system, wherein the onboard processing system processes the weather information into a reduced size dataset;
• and
• an onboard low bandwidth communication transceiver coupled to the onboard processing system, wherein the onboard low bandwidth communication transceiver transmits the reduced size dataset to a remote low bandwidth communication transceiver onboard a second aircraft, and wherein a capacity of the onboard low bandwidth communication transceiver is approximately one mega-bits per second and less.

A method for receiving at an installation aircraft weather information detected by a remote aircraft, the weather information communicated using a low bandwidth communication channel defined by a capacity of approximately one mega-bits per second and less, the method comprising:

• receiving at an onboard low bandwidth communication transceiver a reduced size dataset transmitted from a remote low bandwidth communication transceiver on the remote aircraft, wherein the reduced size dataset includes at least remote weather information pertaining to remote weather detected by the remote aircraft, and includes location information for the remote aircraft;
• processing the received remote weather information into weather radar image information that is displayable on at least a weather radar display;
• receiving local weather information from a weather radar system onboard the installation aircraft;
• processing the received local weather information into local weather radar image information that is displayable on the weather radar display;
• and
• displaying the local weather radar image information and the remote weather radar image information on the weather radar display.