Vertical Profile Weather Display for Flight Path Planning
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current weather display systems for pilots are inadequate as they require navigating through top-down raster images to determine altitude-specific weather conditions, making it difficult to visualize and plan routes to avoid hazardous weather due to the complexity of four-dimensional weather data.
Innovation Solution
A method is introduced to convert weather-related raster-based forecast data into polygonal bands, allowing for a vertical profile display that shows only the weather intersecting the flight path, enabling pilots to visualize the entire atmosphere and plan route or altitude variations to avoid hazardous weather without switching between multiple altitude products.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If pilots use top-down raster images to check weather conditions at different altitudes, then they can obtain weather information, but it requires significant time and attention to navigate through multiple altitude layers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the traditional top-down 2D raster weather maps into a 3D vertical profile view that displays weather conditions along the flight path across multiple altitudes. This dimensional transformation allows pilots to see weather at different altitudes simultaneously in a single vertical cross-section, eliminating the need to switch between multiple altitude layers and significantly reducing the time required to assess weather conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the four-dimensional weather data (latitude, longitude, altitude, time) into a vertical profile that focuses on the specific flight path. By segmenting the weather information along the flight trajectory and organizing it vertically by altitude, the system presents only the relevant weather data that intersects with the flight path, reducing information overload and navigation time.
2Reliability
If pilots manually analyze four-dimensional weather data to plan routes, then they can avoid hazardous weather, but the complexity of the data makes visualization and planning difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and displays only the weather data that is relevant to the specific flight path by creating a vertical profile along the trajectory. It filters out weather conditions that do not intersect with the flight path, presenting only the hazardous weather layers that the aircraft would actually encounter at different altitudes. This extraction approach simplifies the four-dimensional weather data into a focused visualization that maintains flight safety information while reducing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements an interactive vertical profile display that allows pilots to dynamically adjust parameters such as flight time, altitude, and route variations. The system updates the weather visualization in real-time based on these adjustments, enabling dynamic flight planning where pilots can see how different routing or altitude choices affect weather intersections, making the complex data adaptable to various flight scenarios.
3Ease of operation
If pilots switch between multiple altitude products to find safe flight levels, then they can identify suitable altitudes, but it is time-consuming and attention-intensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple altitude-specific weather products into a single integrated vertical profile display. Instead of requiring pilots to switch between separate altitude layers, the system combines weather data from all relevant altitudes into one continuous vertical cross-section along the flight path. This merging allows pilots to view the complete vertical weather structure and identify safe flight levels by observing gaps in hazardous weather layers, dramatically reducing the time and cognitive load required for altitude selection.
Data Source
AI summary
Displaying weather-based information for a flight path is disclosed. A data processing system receives a flight path and retrieves weather-related raster-based forecast data along the flight path. The data processing system then generates a vertical profile for the flight path for all altitudes along the flight path and all flight times along the flight path. The weather-related raster-based forecast data is then converted by the system into polygonal bands that are superimposed by the data processing system onto the vertical profile, resulting in a modified vertical profile. The modified vertical profile is then displayed by the data processing system with a selector in a graphical user interface (GUI) for selecting a flight time of the flight times along the flight path.