Cellular weather information system for aircraft

An apparatus for providing thunderstorm positions to aircraft and to other users, comprising:

• means for detecting at one or more ground stations electromagnetic radiation from lightning,
• means for determining from the electromagnetic radiation a position relative to a ground station of at least one thunderstorm, said means for determining a position of a thunderstorm including means for triangulating at least two bearings of an atmospheric disturbance from at least two ground stations a known distance apart to determine a precise position of the atmospheric disturbance,
• means at said ground station for receiving, via a cellular telephone system, from a user aircraft a request for weather data, said request including an identification number of said user aircraft and a position and heading of said user aircraft for processing by said ground station,
• means for transmitting, via a cellular telephone system, said thunderstorm position and other weather data to said user aircraft,
• means aboard said user aircraft for receiving said thunderstorm position,
• means aboard said user aircraft for processing said thunderstorm position to determine said position relative to said aircraft, said means for processing said thunderstorm positions including rotating said thunderstorm positions to correct for said aircraft's heading and translating said thunderstorm positions to correct for said aircraft's position relative to the ground station so that a subsequent display of thunderstorm positions shows said thunderstorm positions relative to a heading and position of said aircraft,
• means aboard said user aircraft to combine thunderstorm position data received from more than one ground station,
• means aboard said user aircraft to display said combined thunderstorm positions as a regional display of thunderstorm activity,
• means aboard said user aircraft for displaying said thunderstorm position relative to said user aircraft, and
• a location of said ground station being coincident with a location of an air cellular telephone base station.