Ground-Based Weather Data Aggregation for Air-Ground Link Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
The connected radar concept for aircraft weather data sharing places a heavy burden on air-ground communication datalinks, which are already overwhelmed by increasing demands from commercial aircraft operations, air traffic control, and in-flight services.
Innovation Solution
A ground-based system with a transceiver and weather data processing system that automatically aggregates and transmits crowdsourced weather information to vehicles, reducing the need for continuous data uploads and downloads by sending aggregated data based on predefined criteria, such as position, time intervals, or radar error reports.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If detailed weather information is uploaded and downloaded between aircraft and ground systems, then weather data availability and accuracy are improved, but the burden on air-ground communication datalinks worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential weather data elements needed for flight safety and removes redundant detailed information. The ground system processes and filters weather radar data from multiple aircraft, extracting only critical hazard information (severe weather cells, turbulence areas, icing conditions) that needs to be transmitted back to aircraft, thereby reducing communication load while maintaining safety-relevant information availability
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of having aircraft continuously upload detailed weather radar data to ground systems and receive processed information (traditional request-response model), the system inverts the approach by having the ground system proactively push aggregated weather alerts and hazard information to aircraft based on their flight paths and weather conditions, reducing unnecessary communication exchanges
2Measurement precision
If multiple aircraft contribute weather data to the connected radar system, then weather information accuracy and coverage are improved, but the processing and transmission complexity worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The ground-based weather information system merges weather radar data from multiple aircraft into a single aggregated weather picture. The system combines radar returns from multiple sources, correlates them with known weather patterns, and generates unified weather alerts that are then distributed to all participating aircraft, simplifying the complexity through centralized processing while maintaining high accuracy through multi-source data fusion
Solution Approach 2:
The ground-based weather information system acts as an intermediary that receives raw weather radar data from multiple aircraft, processes and validates the information against known weather patterns and flight safety requirements, and then distributes standardized weather alerts back to aircraft. This intermediary layer filters out noise and inconsistencies from individual aircraft data while preserving accurate weather information
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for automatic uplink of weather information are provided. In one embodiment, a ground-based system for automatically communicating crowdsourced weather information comprises: at least one transceiver configured to communicate with vehicles via one or more communication links; a weather data processing system coupled to the at least one transceiver, the weather data processing system comprising at least one processor coupled to a memory, the at least one processor configured to: receive weather information from the vehicles; aggregate the weather information received from the vehicles and store aggregated weather information in the memory; automatically transmit aggregated weather information to a first vehicle of the vehicles via the one or more communication links in response to the weather data processing system receiving a radar error report from the first vehicle.