JP2002031682A - Metorological observation device for flight control - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To directly observe wind-droplet distribution near a flight path. SOLUTION: A beam orientation direction is calculated with an observation direction calculator 11 using in formation of using runway or the flight path and a beam is formed in the direction using an antenna controller 13 to observe the turbulence. With a signal processor 17, the received signal is FFT-processed, frequency spectrum adding-processed and then velocity calculation-processed or the magnitude calculation-processed. On the other hand, the existence of rainfall or cloud is judged from the observation results of the turbulence. With this judgment, the velocity component is extracted with the velocity calculation process in the case of no rainfall and the magnitude component is extracted with the magnitude calculation process in the case of rainfall. With a wind/ droplet distribution calculator 18, various processing including coordinate conversion is executed for the velocity component (wind velocity information) and the magnitude component (rainfall information) and the wind/droplet distributions in the direction of the beam from the observation direction calculator 11 are calculated. The flight path and the wind/droplet distribution are two or three-dimensionally indicated on a display 19.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a flight control weather observation device for directly observing and displaying a wind distribution or a water droplet distribution such as rain and clouds on a flight path necessary for safe operation of an aircraft or an airship. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a flying object represented by an aircraft or an airship, wind is an important factor affecting safe flight. Especially when taking off or landing, it is the time that requires the most attention.

At present, wind profilers and boundary layer radars are typical devices for observing the wind. However, the current outputs of the wind profiler and the boundary layer radar are only the wind distribution in one direction represented by the zenith direction.

[0004] On the other hand, the take-off and landing route of an aircraft or the like is a straight route having an inclination of several degrees to several tens degrees. Become. For this reason, the wind distribution on the flight path is currently estimated from the wind distribution in the zenith direction which is the output of the wind profiler or the boundary layer radar.

[0005] However, microburst, which is a problem at the time of takeoff and landing of an airplane or an airship, is a very local phenomenon. For safe operation of an airplane or an airship, it is necessary to always be able to immediately grasp the wind distribution on the flight path. Is required. Airships are also required to always be able to immediately grasp whether raindrops, clouds, or other water droplets that cause a decrease in buoyancy are on the flight path.

[0006]

As described above, conventionally, wind distribution or rain near the takeoff / landing route of an aircraft or the ascending / descending route of an airship, which is important for maintaining the safe operation of an aircraft or an airship, has been described. There is no device that can directly observe water droplets such as clouds, and the distribution of wind and water droplets in the flight path had to be estimated from the wind distribution in the zenith direction, which is the output of a wind profiler or boundary layer radar. For this reason, the operator for safe operation of flying objects such as aircraft and airships, in addition to wind profiler or boundary layer radar, has also determined using the output of other observation devices such as weather radar, A great workload was imposed.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, and it is possible to directly observe the wind distribution or water droplets near the flight path and to display the wind condition in a form that is extremely easy to recognize. It is an object of the present invention to provide a flight control weather observation device that can reduce the workload of an operator for performing safe operation of a flying object.

[0008]

To achieve the above object, a meteorological observation apparatus for flight control according to the present invention uses an antenna whose beam direction is controllable to transmit and receive a beam toward a flight path of a flying object. Is formed, and the wind distribution or water droplet distribution near the flight path is directly observed and displayed from the echo component of the received signal.

With the above configuration, it is possible to directly observe and display the wind distribution or water droplet distribution near the flight path of the controlled flying object.

In the above configuration, the wind distribution can be calculated by observing an echo component due to Bragg scattering from the received signal and by observing the result.

In the above configuration, the water droplet distribution can be calculated by observing an echo component due to Rayleigh scattering from the received signal and by observing the result.

In the above configuration, it is also possible to designate a plurality of the flight paths and directly observe and display the wind distribution or water droplet distribution in the vicinity of each flight path in a time-division manner.

In the above configuration, when the flying object is an aircraft and one or more flight paths are specified for a runway used for takeoff and landing of the aircraft, the runway is automatically designated by specifying the runway. The beam directions corresponding to the one or more flight paths are calculated, transmission / reception beams are formed in a time-division manner in the respective beam directions, and the wind distribution or water droplet distribution near each flight path is directly observed and displayed in a time-division manner. By doing so, it is not necessary to directly specify the beam direction to the flight path, and the burden on the operator can be reduced.

In the above configuration, the direction closest to the flight path is calculated by first-order approximation, and the wind distribution or the water droplet distribution in that direction is directly observed and displayed, whereby it is possible to cope with a meandering flight path.

In the above configuration, the operator grasps the flight route and the wind distribution or water droplet distribution in the vicinity of the flight route by projecting display from any two directions or displaying the distribution three-dimensionally. Work can be performed easily, and the work load can be reduced.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

Here, in the meteorological observation device according to the present invention, the U which is used in the current wind profiler is used.
By using a frequency in a band higher than the HF band or the L band used in boundary layer radar, an antenna having a small size and high directivity can be used. Then, by directing the beam formed by this antenna in an arbitrary direction, specifying a turbulence region from the reflected wave due to Bragg scattering in that direction, and combining with a function of calculating the wind direction and speed from the movement of the turbulence region, Enables wind distribution in all directions. Further, when there are water droplets such as rainfall and clouds, it is possible to observe the distribution of water droplets by utilizing the fact that relatively strong reflected waves are obtained by Rayleigh scattering.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a weather observation device according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, an observation direction calculation unit 11 inputs a flight path such as a runway or an airship used by an aircraft for takeoff and landing from an external control device or the like, and
2 to calculate the takeoff / landing path of the aircraft or the flight path of the airship, and obtain the directional control information based on the azimuth angle and the elevation angle for directing the beam in that direction. Antenna control unit 1
3 and the wind / water droplet distribution calculation unit 18.

The antenna unit 12 is capable of forming a beam in an arbitrary direction in space. The antenna unit 12 transmits a transmission pulse signal input from the transmission / reception switching unit 14 as a radio wave in the beam direction and receives a reflected wave thereof. And has a function of outputting the received signal to the transmission / reception switching unit 14.

The antenna control unit 13 has a function of directing the beam direction to the antenna unit 12 in the directions of the azimuth angle and the elevation angle input from the observation direction calculation unit 11.

The transmission / reception switching unit 14 has a function of outputting a transmission pulse signal from the transmission unit 15 to the antenna unit 12 and performing signal switching for outputting a reception signal from the antenna unit 12 to the reception unit 16.

The transmitting unit 15 generates a transmission pulse signal repeatedly at a cycle corresponding to the observation distance, outputs the signal to the transmission / reception switching unit 14, generates a trigger signal indicating the pulse transmission timing, and outputs the signal to the receiving unit 16. Having.

The receiving section 16 takes in the received signal from the transmission / reception switching section 14 at intervals of the trigger signal from the transmitting section 15 and performs processing such as frequency conversion and amplification on the received signal. 17 is provided.

The signal processing unit 17 performs various kinds of signal processing (FFT processing, frequency spectrum integration processing, intensity calculation processing, speed calculation processing, etc.) on the signal input from the reception unit 16, and generates a speed component (wind speed information). Alternatively, it has a function of extracting the intensity component (rainfall information) and outputting it to the wind / water droplet distribution calculation unit 18.

The wind / water droplet distribution calculation unit 18 includes the signal processing unit 1
The wind or water drop distribution in the beam direction from the velocity component (wind speed information) or the intensity component (rainfall information) input from 7 and the beam directing direction (azimuth angle, elevation angle) of the antenna unit 12 input from the observation direction calculation unit 11 is calculated. It has a function of outputting it to the display unit 19 after calculating.

The display unit 19 displays a wind distribution near a flight path such as a runway or an airship used by an aircraft for takeoff and landing, or a water droplet such as a rain cloud, based on the wind / water droplet distribution information input from the wind / water droplet distribution calculation unit 18. It has the function of displaying the distribution on the screen.

The specific processing operation of the meteorological observation device having the above configuration will be described below in comparison with a conventional wind profiler and boundary layer radar.

First, in a conventional wind profiler or boundary layer radar, beam scanning is performed in the pattern shown in FIG. That is, first, the beam direction is set to the zenith (azimuth 0
Turbulence observation toward the zenith, then slightly northward from the zenith (azimuth 0 °, elevation (90-α) °)
Observe turbulence, and then observe turbulence slightly eastward from the zenith (azimuth + 90 °, elevation (90-α) °). Obtains the wind distribution by altitude at. Then, such processing is periodically repeated to obtain a statistical wind distribution.

On the other hand, in the present apparatus, as shown in FIG.
The beam is formed in the directions of the azimuth angle and the elevation angle designated from 1. In the example of FIG. 3, the azimuth angle + 4
Designation input of 5 ° and elevation angle 30 ° (turbulence observation 1), azimuth angle -135 ° and elevation angle 6
This shows a case where there is a designated input of 0 ° (turbulence observation 2). In response to each designated input, the antenna control unit 13 conducts turbulence observation by directing the beam in the designated direction, performs turbulence observation slightly in the same azimuth angle in the elevation direction, and maintains the elevation angle for designation. Turbulence observation is performed by rotating the azimuth by + 90 °, and the turbulence observation results in each of the above three directions are input to the signal processing unit 17.

In the signal processing unit 17, as shown in FIG.
FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) processing (S1) is performed on the received signal in each of the three directions to convert a signal in the time domain into a signal in the frequency domain, and a frequency spectrum integration processing (S2) is performed. ) Or intensity calculation processing (S4).

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, the presence / absence of rain / cloud presence is determined from the first turbulence observation result in the designated direction (S5).
I do. This determination is based on the fact that if there is rainfall / cloud in the beam direction, a relatively large echo component appears due to Rayleigh scattering, and it is detected that the reception intensity has exceeded a certain value. -Identify the presence of clouds. According to the rain / cloud presence / absence judgment, when there is no rain / cloud, the speed component is extracted from the peak value by the speed calculation process (S3), and when there is rain, the intensity component is extracted from the average value by the intensity calculation process (S4). I do. The speed component extracted in this manner becomes wind speed information, and the intensity component becomes rainfall information.

The wind / water droplet distribution calculation unit 18 performs various processes including coordinate conversion on the velocity component (wind speed information) or the intensity component (rainfall information) input from the signal processing unit 17. The wind / water droplet distribution for the given antenna beam direction (azimuth angle, elevation angle) is calculated.

As described above, the meteorological observation apparatus of the present embodiment can directly observe only the wind distribution in one direction represented by the zenith direction, whereas the current wind profiler and boundary layer radar can directly observe any wind distribution. It is possible to directly observe and display the wind distribution in a plurality of directions continuously and with high directivity. In addition, it is possible to directly observe and display the distribution of water droplets such as clouds and rain in the observation direction that was impossible with the current wind profiler and boundary layer radar.

Next, an operation example which is a feature of the present invention will be described. In the configuration shown in FIG. 1, the observation direction calculation unit 11 and the wind / water droplet distribution calculation unit 18 that perform the characteristic operation of the present invention are provided.
The operation examples of the display unit 19 and the display unit 19 are shown in the following (1) to (3).

(1) Observation direction calculation unit 11 When installed at an airport, there are takeoff routes and landing routes for aircraft depending on each runway. The observation direction calculation unit 11 inputs the currently used runway information from an external device (such as a traffic control device), calculates the direction from the antenna unit 12 to the currently used takeoff and landing path, and calculates the antenna beam. The direction (azimuth angle, elevation angle) is output to the antenna control unit 13 and the wind / water droplet distribution calculation unit 18. Also, if multiple takeoff and landing routes are used,
The antenna beam direction (azimuth angle, elevation angle) for each takeoff and landing path direction is calculated by time division,
Output to the antenna control unit 13 and the wind / water droplet distribution calculation unit 18.

In the case of a flying object such as an airship that does not take off and land in a straight line like an aircraft, the ascending / descending route is input from an external device (control device, etc.) and the flight route as viewed from the antenna unit 12 is input. The linear direction is calculated, and the calculated direction is output to the antenna control unit 13 and the wind / water droplet distribution calculation unit 18 as the antenna beam direction (azimuth angle, elevation angle). The linear direction of the flight path viewed from the antenna 12 is
As an example, a linear direction obtained by a first-order approximation (least square method or the like) for each flight path is considered.

(2) Wind / Water Drop Distribution Calculation Unit 18 Based on the azimuth and elevation direction of the antenna beam input from the observation direction calculation unit 11, the wind distribution in that direction or the water droplet distribution of rain, clouds, etc. is directly observed. And outputs it to the display unit 19.

(3) Display unit 19 The wind distribution or the water droplet distribution such as rain or cloud input from the wind / water droplet distribution calculating unit 18 is two-dimensional or three-dimensional along with the flight path.
Display dimensionally.

FIG. 5 shows a display example of the wind distribution when used at an airport. FIG. 5 shows an example in which the present invention is applied to airfield control, and is an example in which wind distributions on the takeoff route and the landing route of an aircraft are projected and displayed from two directions, a runway direction and a direction perpendicular to the runway.

FIGS. 6 and 7 show display examples when the airship is operating (ascending). FIG. 6 shows an example of a two-dimensional display in airship operation, in which the wind distribution in the vicinity of the launch path of the airship is displayed from two directions represented by north-south and east-west directions.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a three-dimensional display in airship operation, in which the wind distribution near the launch path of the airship is displayed three-dimensionally.

As is clear from the display examples of the wind distributions shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, according to the present apparatus, the wind conditions near the flight path can be displayed in a format that is easy for the operator to grasp. . As a result, it is possible to greatly reduce the work load of an operator for safely operating a flying object such as an aircraft or an airship.

In particular, it is desirable for the aircraft to take a headwind at the time of takeoff and landing for safety reasons. Therefore, this display is very useful information for judging the timing of takeoff / landing runway change (runway change) by changing the wind direction. Become. And even after this runway change, this device can be used to immediately change to the display content corresponding to the take-off and landing route after the runway change, so that the wind conditions near the flight route can always be grasped continuously. It is possible to do.

In addition, it is possible to directly observe and display not only the wind distribution but also the distribution of clouds and raindrops which cause a drop in the buoyancy of the airship, which further increases the work load for the safe operation of the airship. Can also be reduced.

[0045]

As described above, according to the meteorological observation apparatus for flight control according to the present invention, the wind distribution or the distribution of water droplets such as rain and clouds near the takeoff / landing route of an aircraft or the ascent / descent route of an airship. By directly observing and displaying wind conditions and clouds near the flight path in a format that is easy for operators to grasp.
It is possible to greatly reduce the workload of an operator for performing safe operation of flying objects such as aircraft and airships. In particular, it is desirable from the viewpoint of safety that the head wind is a head wind during takeoff and landing of an aircraft. However, this display is very effective information for judging the timing of a takeoff / landing runway change (runway change) due to a change in wind direction. Then, even after the runway change is performed, the observation direction can be changed and the display content corresponding to the change can be immediately changed, so that the wind condition near the flight path can be always continuously grasped.

Even in the case of a flying object that does not take off and land linearly, such as an airship, it is possible to directly observe and display the wind distribution in a direction very close to the ascending / descending path.
In addition, since it is possible to observe not only the wind but also the distribution of water droplets such as rain and clouds that cause a decrease in the buoyancy of the airship, it is possible to understand not only the wind distribution but also the distribution of water droplets such as clouds and rainfall. As a result, it is possible to greatly reduce the work load for performing the safe operation of the airship.

Therefore, it is possible to directly observe the wind distribution or water droplets in the vicinity of the flight path and to display the wind condition in an easily recognizable form, whereby the operational load of the operator for performing the safe operation of the flying object can be displayed. It is possible to provide a flight control meteorological observation device capable of reducing the number of times.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of a flight control weather observation device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a beam scanning pattern of a conventional wind profiler or boundary layer radar for comparison with the apparatus of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a view showing a beam scanning pattern of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary view showing a processing procedure of a signal processing unit of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display example of a wind distribution in a case where the wind distribution is used at the airport in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a two-dimensional display during airship operation (when climbing) in the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a three-dimensional display during airship operation (when ascending) in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Observation direction calculation part 12 ... Antenna part 13 ... Antenna control part 14 ... Transmission / reception switching part 15 ... Transmission part 16 ... Reception part 17 ... Signal processing part 18 ... Wind / water droplet distribution calculation part 19 ... Display part

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A transmitting / receiving beam is formed toward a flight path of a flying object using an antenna whose beam direction is controllable, and a wind distribution or a water droplet distribution in the vicinity of the flight path is directly observed from an echo component of a received signal. A flight control weather observation device characterized by displaying. 2. The weather control device for flight control according to claim 1, wherein the wind distribution is obtained by observing an echo component due to Bragg scattering from the received signal and calculating the result of the observation. 3. The meteorological observation device for flight control according to claim 1, wherein the water drop distribution is obtained by observing an echo component due to Rayleigh scattering from the received signal and calculating the result of the observation. 4. The weather control device for flight control according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said flight paths are designated and a wind distribution or a water droplet distribution near each flight path is directly observed and displayed in a time-division manner. 5. When the flying object is an aircraft and one or more flight paths are specified for a runway used for takeoff and landing of the aircraft, the run object is automatically designated by specifying the runway. Calculate the beam direction corresponding to the flight path, form the transmission and reception beams in time division in each beam direction, directly observe and display the wind distribution or water droplet distribution near each flight path in time division. The flight control weather observation device according to claim 1. 6. The flight control meteorological observation device according to claim 1, wherein a direction closest to the flight path is calculated by first-order approximation, and a wind distribution or a water droplet distribution in the direction is directly observed and displayed. 7. The flight control weather observation device according to claim 1, wherein the flight path and the wind distribution or water droplet distribution near the flight path are projected and displayed from two arbitrary directions. 8. The meteorological observation device for flight control according to claim 1, wherein the flight route and the wind distribution or water droplet distribution near the flight route are displayed three-dimensionally.