Patent Application
20100271239
The present invention generally relates to rendering atmospheric uncertainty information and more particularly to compiling and displaying wind uncertainty information on navigation displays.
World wide air traffic is projected to double every ten to fourteen years and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) forecasts world air travel growth of five percent per annum until the year 2020. Such growth may cause degradation in safety and performance and an increase in an already high workload of the flight crew. One of the largest negative influences on flight performance has been unreliable weather forecasts. Reliable weather forecast with accurate data and transparent (understandable) representation on the display can significantly improve situational awareness of the flight crew resulting in increased flight safety and performance.
One known system discloses a weather radar system that displays representational images of the weather and attaches symbols indicating the “uncertainty” of the data displayed. The “uncertainty” represents the quality and reliability (probability of the accuracy, or inaccuracy) of the data.
Another known system discloses communicating an uncertainty of a location of an object near an aircraft. However, both of these known systems that rely only on on-board sensors are limited to the vantage point of the aircraft taking the measurements.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method of compiling from multiple sources and rendering a transparent presentation of the weather to assist the flight crew to evaluate the current situation, leading to improved economy and safety. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.
In one exemplary embodiment, a method of displaying, on a display of a vehicle, atmospheric uncertainties including a threshold uncertainty map of weather data recorded from at least one vehicle superimposed on a weather map including meteorological data provided by another source. The meteorological data may be recent, historical, or forecasted and may be modified to be a stochastic model of the historical or forecasted meteorological data.
Another exemplary embodiment is a method of presenting atmospheric uncertainties, including collecting weather data, obtaining weather information recorded along trajectories of at least one vehicle, the weather information having a higher importance proportional to the portion of the trajectory most recently traversed, creating a threshold uncertainty map of the weather information obtained along the trajectories, joining the threshold uncertainty map with the weather data, combining an atmospheric field with the joined threshold uncertainty map and the weather data, and displaying the combined atmospheric field, threshold uncertainty map, and weather data on a display.
The patent or application file contains at least one drawing executed in color. Copies of this patent or patent application publication with color drawings will be provided by the Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee. The preferred exemplary embodiment of the present invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings, where like designations denote like elements, and:
The following detailed description of the invention is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the invention or the application and uses of the invention. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any theory presented in the preceding background of the invention or the following detailed description of the invention.
A method is disclosed herein of displaying in two dimensions the current weather situation, such as the wind, to assist the flight crew in evaluating the current situation, thereby leading to improved economy and safety. This display provides a statistical representation of the weather data for more accurate aircraft trajectory prediction and flight performance. This presentation will inform the aircrew about the level of confidence for a particular path segment prediction with respect to weather influencing the predicted trajectory. The method utilizes statistical methods for weather modeling including shared weather data from surrounding aircraft to enhance accuracy and reliability (in the form of uncertainty) of weather information presented to the aircrew. The statistical methods include the mutual interrelation of weather parameters compiled and stochastic behavior of the weather. For example, wind magnitude (velocity) is modeled as the sum of a deterministic, nominal component (meteorological predictions) and a stochastic component (inaccuracy and uncertainty of these predictions). A mathematical process of obtaining these two components is provided in Chapter 4 of the paper “A Stochastic Hybrid Model for Air Traffic Management Processes” by I. Lymperopoulos et al., Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, 2007.
Weather data is combined with statistical representations of data measured by other aircraft passing the flight route of interest. In a broad sense, the method displays a threshold uncertainty map of at least one aircraft superimposed on a wind map including meteorological data. More specifically, the method disclosed herein receives weather data from other aircraft, visualizes an “aircraft uncertainty trace” of other aircraft, blends the “aircraft uncertainty traces” into one uncertainty map, and merges the uncertainty map with a weather map indicating forecasted weather or historical data, such as wind magnitudes and bearings. This uncertainty map may serve as another layer of information on a navigation display, for example, a weather radar layer, terrain map, or ground proximity warnings as well as other flight plan information.
Referring to
The weather radar system 101 receives signals that arise from the scattering of transmitted pulses from the external environment including primarily weather and terrain. The received signals are passed to the processor 102, which uses the received signals to update estimates of weather reflectivity and ground normalized radar cross section contained in computer memory (three-dimensional buffer). The radar system 101 may also receive signals from other sources, for example a ground based station, of forecasted or historical weather information in the vicinity of the flight path, wherein the weather information is processed by, for example, the Lymperopoulos mathematical process mentioned above. The processor 102 generates an image for presentation on the display device 104 based on any control signals sent from the user interface 105 or based on settings within the processor 102.
Referring to
A threshold uncertainty map 300 (represented by the presentation of
Referring to
The representation 500 of
It should be noted that FIGS. illustrate areas 216, 218, 220, 224, 410, 412, 414, 416, 418 of different values. One object disclosed herein is to display in two dimensions the current weather situation, such as the wind, to assist the flight crew in evaluating the current situation, thereby leading to improved economy and safety. This display is best provided such that the aircrew may readily understand the information presented, for example, by using different colors depicting uncertainty by levels of transparency. For example, areas for which there is enough data (they have very low uncertainty) are very bright (completely transparent) and show all weather data (magnitude and direction) that are available, whereas the areas where are no data available (they have very high uncertainty) are very dark (opaque). Additionally, the areas 216, 218, 220, 224, 410, 412, 414, 416, 418 may gradually change in value from one area to another as depicted by a change in brightness or color. An example of such a color display as presented to the aircrew may be seen in
While at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in the foregoing detailed description of the invention, it should be appreciated that a vast number of variations exist. It should also be appreciated that the exemplary embodiment or exemplary embodiments are only examples, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the foregoing detailed description will provide those skilled in the art with a convenient road map for implementing an exemplary embodiment of the invention, it being understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements described in an exemplary embodiment without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
