Patent Application
20120203448
Efficient oceanic operations normally require flight level changes. Climbs or descents provide optimal performance to take advantage of favorable winds or to avoid turbulence or other weather anomalies.
Current oceanic operations limit opportunities for flight level changes for a number of reasons:
Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) in-trail procedures (ITP) are airborne ADS-B-enabled climbs and descents through otherwise blocked flight levels. ITP is based on an approved International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) procedure whereby a controller separates aircraft based on information derived from cockpit sources that is relayed by the flight crew.
ITP allows a leading or following aircraft on the same track to climb or descend to a desired flight level through flight levels occupied by other aircraft at separation distances less than those required for a standard (STD) climb/descent procedure. An ITP display enables a flight crew to determine if specific criteria for an ITP climb/descent are met with respect to one or two reference aircraft at intervening flight levels. These criteria ensure that the spacing between the estimated positions of the ITP aircraft and reference aircraft always exceeds the ITP separation minimum of 10 NM, while vertical separation does not exist during the climb or descent. Once the flight crew has established that the ITP criteria are met, they request an ITP climb or descent, identifying any reference aircraft in the clearance request. Air Traffic Control (ATC) must determine if standard separation will be met for all aircraft at the requested flight level—and at all flight levels between the initial flight level and the requested flight level. If so, a standard (non-ITP) flight level change clearance is likely to be granted. Otherwise, if the reference aircraft are the only blocking aircraft, the controller evaluates the ITP request. ATC determines if the reference aircraft have been cleared to change speed or change flight level or are about to reach a point at which a significant change of track will occur. The controller also ensures that the requesting aircraft is not referenced in another procedure. ATC also ensures that the positive Mach difference with the reference aircraft is no greater than 0.06 Mach. If each of these criteria is satisfied, then ATC may issue the ITP flight level change clearance.
Current ITP displays fail to provide adequate feedback that would be very helpful to a crew wanting to change altitudes. Thus, flight crews have difficulty planning tasks in order to optimize oceanic climbs/descents.
The present invention provides methods and systems for providing improved In-Trails Procedure (ITP) or standard (STD) transition information on a display with a vertical profile view. In an exemplary embodiment, a user interface located on a host aircraft receives a user selection of a desired altitude. A processor on the host aircraft receives information from one or more proximate target aircraft via a communications system on the host aircraft and receives host aircraft information from one or more other systems located on the host aircraft. The processor generates a graphical user interface display for presentation on a display coupled to the processing device. The graphical user interface display includes a vertical profile view that shows a valid or invalid indication for an In-Trails Procedure (ITP) or standard (STD) transition to the altitude associated with the received desired altitude based on the received proximate target aircraft and host aircraft information.
In one aspect of the invention, the indication includes a message box positioned in the vertical profile view based on the position of a region of airspace associated with the message box.
In another aspect of the invention, the indication includes a boundary box based on the region of airspace associated with the message box.
In still another aspect of the invention, the indication presents time or distance information of when the ITP transition or the STD transition to the altitude associated with the received desired altitude will be valid or will cease to be valid.
Preferred and alternative embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the following drawings:
The processor 24 receives information of other aircraft in the vicinity of the aircraft 20 via the ADS-B system 26 and, if included, the TCAS 28. In another embodiment, the TCAS 28 includes the ADS-B functionality and the processor 24 is included in the TCAS 28. The processor 24 presents the received other aircraft (target) information on the display device and user interface 30. Pilots interact with the processor 24 using the user interface 30, such as a cursor control device or a touch-screen display, for analyzing and sending ITP change of altitude requests to a controller authority via the communications system 32. This will be shown in more detail below in the following figures.
An example of the radar system 40 includes a radar controller 50, a transmitter 52, a receiver 54, and an antenna 56. The radar controller 50 controls the transmitter 52 and the receiver 54 for performing the sending and receiving of signals through the antenna 56. The weather radar system 40 and the processor 24 are in signal communication with the other aircraft systems 46.
The radar controller 50 or comparable processor calculates the distance of weather objects (target 60) relative to the antenna 56, based upon the length of time the transmitted signal pulse takes in the transition from the antenna 56 to the target 60 and back to the antenna 56 (i.e., reflectivity signal). The relationship between distance and time is linear as the velocity of the signal is constant, approximately the speed of light in a vacuum.
In one embodiment, the memory 34 includes a three-dimensional volumetric buffer for storing the reflectivity data from the receiver 54. The processor 24 has the capabilities of inferring lightning, hail, or turbulence based on the reflectivity data stored in the volumetric buffer. The processor 24, having access to the volumetric buffer, provides weather and wake vortex information to the ITP display device 30. Copending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/640,976 and 12/641,149, both filed Dec. 17, 2009, are hereby incorporated by reference.
An exemplary weather radar system 40 is Honeywell's IntuVue™ Weather Radar, which encompasses a three-dimensional volumetric buffer. The radar system 40 continuously scans the entire three-dimensional space in front of the aircraft 20 and stores all reflectivity data in an earth-referenced, three-dimensional (or “volumetric”) memory buffer (memory 34). The buffer is continuously updated with reflectivity data from new scans. The data stored in the buffer are compensated for aircraft movement (speed, heading, altitude). The data in the buffer are updated at a rate of every 30 seconds, for example. The three-dimensional method employs a scanning scheme that provides full coverage over a total of −15 to +15 degrees tilt control range. Reflectivity data are extracted from the buffer to generate the desired display views without having to make (and wait for) view-specific antenna scans. In one embodiment, this extraction and image generation are performed at one-second intervals (compared to four seconds for conventional radar). With the three-dimensional volumetric buffer data, the display presentation is not constrained to a single tilt-plane that is inherent to conventional radar.
The processor 24 generates an ITP vertical profile view that is presented on a vertical situation awareness display (VSAD) and/or three-dimensional display device (the display device 30). The ITP vertical profile view includes:
airborne three-dimensional weather reflectivity data;
airborne weather hazard information, such as presence of turbulence, convective activity, hail, lightning;
predictive wake vortex information;
data-linked winds-aloft data;
data-linked weather (service provided);
data-linked weather from other aircraft (e.g., pilot reports (PIREPS), temp, pressure); and/or
information about when a window for performing an ITP or standard (STD) altitude will be available or will cease to be available.
The processor 24 receives flight information from the aircraft associated with the other aircraft icons 112, 114 via the ADS-B system 26 and the own-ship information via the other aircraft systems 46 in order to determine if an ITP or STD transition is possible within the column of space between the two aircraft (icons 112, 114). This determination can be made for other columns of space not occupied by other aircraft. Some of the information that the processor 24 uses in order to make this determination includes the location and current airspeeds of the other aircraft as well as the current airspeed of the own-ship 20. The indication displayed on the vertical profile view section 102 that indicates that there is no STD or ITP separation, in order to perform a transition to the desired altitude, includes a box or a partial box 118 that links the two other aircraft icons 112, 114 and within that box 118 is a text window 120 that includes text stating that no STD or ITP separation exists.
In one embodiment, the message box 160 is presented only when there does not exist a valid STD or ITP transition within the currently viewed vertical profile view section 102. Located at the bottom of the vertical profile view section 102, as shown in
Also shown in
In this example, the STD transition is not valid until some distance after the location of the left aircraft (the icon 168). Thus, the leading edge of the linking box 166 is located at some distance between the two icons 168, 169. The distance where the leading edge (or trailing edge) is located is where the STD transition is valid, as determined by the processor 24.
As shown in
While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, as noted above, many changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not limited by the disclosure of the preferred embodiment. Instead, the invention should be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow.
