Nowcast of conviction-induced turbulence using information from airborne radar
AssigneeHoneywell International Inc.
InventorsL. Lucy Zheng, Richard Burne, Dan T. Horak
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A convection induced turbulence (CIT) detection system performs a nowcast algorithm to detect CIT along the flight path of an aircraft using power returns from an airborne whether radar. Additional meteorological data is optionally provided by onboard sensors and/or data link from ground sources. A nowcast predicting turbulence along the flight path in the near future alerts the pilot to the likelihood of encountering clear air turbulence.
Claims32
A convection induced turbulence nowcast system comprising:
- a memory for storing a signal representative of a radar power return from a weather condition;
- and
- a processor coupled to said memory and adapted to:
- a) process said radar power return signal to provide spatial and temporal weather condition information,
- b) determine physical parameters of said weather condition as a function of said spatial and temporal whether condition information, and
- c) process said physical parameters as a function of predetermined diagnostic parameters to determine turbulence information and generate a nowcast of convection induced turbulence.
A nowcast system for predicting convection induced turbulence occurring along the flight path of a host aircraft, the system comprising:
- on-board storage for storing convection induced turbulence data as a function predetermined weather condition features;
- and
- an on-board computer coupled to said on-board storage and adapted to receive a signal representative of a radar power return of a weather condition in the flight path of the aircraft from an on-board radar system, said computer executing software commands to:
- a) extract key features from said radar power return spatial and temporal weather condition,
- b) retrieve convection induced turbulence data corresponding to said extracted features,
- c) compute predetermined physical parameters of said weather condition as a function of said spatial and temporal whether condition information,
- d) apply predetermined diagnostic parameters to said physical parameters to determine diagnostic turbulence variables,
- e) generate a nowcast of convection induced turbulence as a function of said retrieved convection induced turbulence data and said diagnostic turbulence variables.
A nowcast system located on-board an aircraft for nowcasting convection induced turbulence events occurring along the flight path of the aircraft, said system comprising:
- on-board storage for storing observational data, and program data including convection induced turbulence data as a function of predetermined weather condition features;
- an on-board radar unit for detecting meteorological data ahead of the aircraft;
- an on-board computer coupled to the on-board storage and on-board sensors to execute program code to:
- a) process said meteorological data to extract one or more key features,
- b) retrieve said convection induced turbulence data as a function of said key features,
- c) compute physical parameters of a weather condition contained in said meteorological data,
- d) process said physical parameters as a function of predetermined diagnostic parameters to determine one or more diagnostic variables, and
- e) generate a nowcast of convection induced turbulence as a function of said retrieved convection induced turbulence data and said diagnostic variables.
A method for using an electronic circuit to generate a convection induced turbulence nowcast using meteorological data conveyed as a radar power return signal, the method comprising:
- a) processing the signal as a radar power return signal;
- b) with the electronic circuit, extracting key features from said radar power return signal, including spatial and temporal information thereof;
- d) with the electronic circuit, retrieving convection induced turbulence information as a function of said key features;
- e) with the electronic circuit, computing predetermined physical parameters of said meteorological data as a function of said spatial and temporal information;
- f) with the electronic circuit, applying predetermined diagnostic parameters to said physical parameters to determine diagnostic turbulence variables, and
- g) with the electronic circuit, generating a nowcast of convection induced turbulence as a function of said retrieved convection induced turbulence data and said diagnostic turbulence variables.
A method for determining a horizontal wind direction at aircraft cruise altitudes, the method comprising:
- determining radar reflectivity of a weather condition as a function of a radar power return from the weather condition;
- computing each of a center of mass and a minimum moment of inertia of said radar reflectivity;
- dividing said radar reflectivity into a plurality of areas;
- computing a mean radar reflectivity for each said area;
- and
- determining a relative reflectivity between said computed mean radar reflectivities.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.