Pilots automated weather support system

An automated weather support system for automatically providing systematic, updated weather information from the ground to the pilot of an aircraft operating over the continental United States or other large area without requiring the pilot to request weather information from any communications facility or to identify the aircraft or its position to any air traffic control facility or other communication facility on the ground, comprising:

• (a) at least one ground station including a communications processor means and a transmitter means, said communications processor means serving to continuously gather, assimilate and edit digital available surface and aloft weather data observations, updates and forecasts, including hazardous weather areas, from a variety of sources over the entire continental United States or other large area, in discrete digital weather data blocks, said transmitter means receiving said discrete digital weather data blocks from said communications processor means and systematically and automatically transmitting said digital weather data blocks in discrete time windows;
• (b) a satellite communications system for receiving the transmitted digital weather data blocks from said transmitter and automatically broadcasting said digital weather data blocks to all aircraft in the air and on the ground within the continental United States or satellite communication coverage area;
• (c) a flight system carried by the aircraft and having a receiver to automatically receive said digital weather data blocks from said satellite communications system;
• (d) said flight system including flight processor means in communication with said receiver to automatically process said digital weather data blocks received into weather map and pictorial depictions tailored to the operational needs of the aircraft pilot;
• (e) said flight processor means being programmable by the pilot to automatically select the map area for display of the weather map and pictorial depictions based on the flight departure airport and destination airport or other parameters programmed into said flight processor means by the pilot;
• (f) said flight system including display and control instrumentation for displaying said weather map and pictorial depictions along the planned route between said departure and destination airports as processed by said flight processor means;
• (g) said flight processor including near real-time automatic processing and comparison of surface weather observations with the applicable forecast in both text and said weather map and pictorial depictions;
• (h) said display and control instrumentation including a flight display screen and said flight processor means producing route cross-sections showing near real-time routine and hazardous weather data and forecasts, along with the terrain profile and planned altitude profiles for display on said flight display screen;
• and
• (i) overlay comparison means included in said display and control instrumentation permitting comparison of near real-time interrelated mosaicked ground weather radar maps, lightning and said hazardous weather areas, on the surface weather depictions.

An automated weather support system for automatically providing systematic, updated, whether information from the ground to the pilot of an aircraft operating over the continental United States or other large area without requiring the pilot to request the weather information from any communications facility or identify his aircraft or its position to any air traffic control facility or other communications facility on the ground, comprising:

• (a) communications processor means disposed on the ground for continuously gathering, assimilating and editing available surface and aloft weather observations and forecasts, including hazardous weather areas, from a variety of sources over the continental United States or other large area and for processing the edited weather information into digital weather data blocks;
• (b) transmitter means disposed on the ground for receiving the processed digital weather data blocks and for systematically and automatically transmitting said digital weather data blocks in discrete time windows;
• (c) an orbiting satellite communications system for receiving and immediately broadcasting said digital weather data blocks to all aircraft in the air or on the ground within the coverage area of said orbiting satellite communications system;
• (d) a flight system carried by said aircraft and having a receiver to automatically receive said digital weather data blocks from said orbiting satellite communications system;
• (e) said flight system including flight processor means in communication with said receiver to automatically process said digital weather data blocks into weather map and pictorial depictions;
• (f) said flight processor means being programmable by the aircraft pilot to automatically select the map area for display of the weather map and pictorial depictions based on the flight departure airport and destination airport or other parameters programmed into said flight processor means by the pilot;
• and
• (g) said flight processor means including a display screen and control instrumentation for displaying said weather map and pictorial depictions and the planned route between departure and selected destination airports based on the selection made by the pilot;
• whereby,
• said display screen and control instrumentation serves to display near real-time weather observations and forecasts on the surface weather depictions and on the route cross-section weather depictions derived by said flight processor means from the digital weather data blocks broadcast by said satellite communications system, along with the terrain profile and planned altitude profiles along the programmed route.