Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01W—METEOROLOGY
  • G01W1/00—Meteorology
  • G01W1/02—Instruments for indicating weather conditions by measuring two or more variables, e.g. humidity, pressure, temperature, cloud cover or wind speed
  • G01W1/06—Instruments for indicating weather conditions by measuring two or more variables, e.g. humidity, pressure, temperature, cloud cover or wind speed giving a combined indication of weather conditions
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01W—METEOROLOGY
  • G01W1/00—Meteorology
  • G01W1/10—Devices for predicting weather conditions
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01C—MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; SURVEYING; NAVIGATION; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY
  • G01C21/00—Navigation; Navigational instruments not provided for in groups G01C1/00 - G01C19/00
  • G01C21/26—Navigation; Navigational instruments not provided for in groups G01C1/00 - G01C19/00 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
  • G01C21/34—Route searching; Route guidance
  • G01C21/36—Input/output arrangements for on-board computers
  • G01C21/3691—Retrieval, searching and output of information related to real-time traffic, weather, or environmental conditions
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01C—MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; SURVEYING; NAVIGATION; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY
  • G01C5/00—Measuring height; Measuring distances transverse to line of sight; Levelling between separated points; Surveyors' levels
  • G01C5/06—Measuring height; Measuring distances transverse to line of sight; Levelling between separated points; Surveyors' levels by using barometric means
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01S—RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
  • G01S19/00—Satellite radio beacon positioning systems; Determining position, velocity or attitude using signals transmitted by such systems
  • G01S19/01—Satellite radio beacon positioning systems transmitting time-stamped messages, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System], GLONASS [Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System] or GALILEO
  • G01S19/13—Receivers
  • G01S19/14—Receivers specially adapted for specific applications
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01S—RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
  • G01S19/00—Satellite radio beacon positioning systems; Determining position, velocity or attitude using signals transmitted by such systems
  • G01S19/01—Satellite radio beacon positioning systems transmitting time-stamped messages, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System], GLONASS [Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System] or GALILEO
  • G01S19/13—Receivers
  • G01S19/33—Multimode operation in different systems which transmit time stamped messages, e.g. GPS/GLONASS
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01S—RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
  • G01S19/00—Satellite radio beacon positioning systems; Determining position, velocity or attitude using signals transmitted by such systems
  • G01S19/38—Determining a navigation solution using signals transmitted by a satellite radio beacon positioning system
  • G01S19/39—Determining a navigation solution using signals transmitted by a satellite radio beacon positioning system the satellite radio beacon positioning system transmitting time-stamped messages, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System], GLONASS [Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System] or GALILEO
  • G01S19/42—Determining position

Definitions

• Embodiments of the present invention are related with weather prediction systems and in particular with weather prediction systems relying on measuring local changes in local meteorological atmospheric data.
• the present invention is further concerned with a signal processor unit adapted for realizing such a weather prediction system.
• Such units lack altitude compensation and require that the sensor be stable with respect to the horizontal plane. This prevents the use of such mobile sensors for weather prediction during normal use.
• watches for instance may be used to give a prediction in the morning assuming that they have been stationary overnight, but can not be used to predict weather when traveling. Additionally the existing technology can only operate on the pressure trends, whereas weather prediction also relies on a knowledge of the absolute pressure normalized to sea level.
• the present invention aims to provide such a system.
• a further aim of the present invention is to provide a portable system that combines the weather prediction with location information in a precise and economical way.
• these aims are achieved by means of a mobile weather monitoring and prediction system by using absolute altitude measurements made by a satellite radiolocalization system to compensate for the effects of altitude, thus providing a calibrated measurement of absolute atmospheric pressure in a mobile environment.
• Figure 1 shows a diagram of the barometric pressure dependence from altitude, according to the international atmosphere model.
• FIG. 2 illustrates, in a simplified schematic way, a possible realization of the device of the invention.
• a portable device comprises a satellite radiolocalization receiver, including an antenna and a RF front-end 20 arranged to receive radiolocalization signal from a constellation of positioning satellites, for example GPS, GLONASS or Galileo satellites, and condition them in a form suitable for the GNSS processor 30, for example a carrier-stripped signal or a low-IF signal in digital or analogue format.
• GNSS processor 30 deals with the radiolocalization signals and extracts, as it is known in the art, position data 35 comprising both horizontal coordinates, for example latitude and longitude, and altitude data as well.
• a pressure readout unit 40 is arranged to read input from a barometric sensor 90, for example am electronic sensor of absolute pressure open to the local atmospheric pressure, and provide pressure data 36, for example as digital pressure values in a standard unit, like kPa or mbar.
• GNSS processor 30 and pressure readout unit 40 are realized in a single electronic component 60, for example a single integrated circuit, including an input for a barometric pressure sensor 90.
• a processor 100 records the changes in the pressure 36 over time and is further coupled to the GNSS processor 30 providing position data 35 containing altitude information, which allows for the barometric pressure measurements to be normalized to a standard altitude, typically to mean sea level.
• Figure 1 represents a standard barometric curve that can be used to this purpose. Other barometric curves are however available.
• Processor 100 may be a general-purpose microprocessor, executing a program stored in a memory 105, containing a software module to normalize pressure to a standard altitude, identify meteorological pressure trends, and provide a weather forecast, to be displayed on the output unit 120.
• Altitude data obtained from satellite positioning system often includes artifacts, for example glitches, due to erratic satellite visibility, or multipath. While the amplitude of these artifacts may be significant, their duration is, as a rule, much shorter than the time span of typical meteorological phenomena, which are relevant for the weather forecast.
• Processor 100 is then programmed filter out the unwanted artifacts, before using them to normalize the barometric data 36, for example by buffering and averaging altitude data over a suitable time interval. Pressure data 36 should preferably be buffered and average cove a comparable time interval.
• Typical air pressure at mean sea level is 1013.25 mbar
• processor 100 could be a processor of a host system, for example a PDA, a mobile phone, or a portable computer, having access to a GPS and weather unit 200. Access may be realized by a physical and electrical connection, or by some suitable wireless data network, for example by a Bluetooth link.
• Memory 105 may as well contain other software modules to display a user's GPS position, assist navigation and so on.
• pressure readout unit 40 could take over some of the computation, thus relieving the processor 100.
• altitude averaging and pressure normalization could be carried out in the pressure readout unit, which could provide pressure data 36 already normalized to a standard altitude.
• the effects of the vertical motion of the sensor are effectively removed and the resulting trend shows the absolute atmospheric pressure which can then be used for weather prediction.
• the average measurements are buffered in memory and stored periodically, where the periods may be fixed or variable, and may also be timestamped to allow correction for missed measurements.
• the data store Periodically the data store is processed to determine the absolute and rate of change of normalized barometric pressure; these are then used to predict the likely weather, and any changes, in particular with relation to the onset of imminent storms which may represent a threat.
• This processing may be automatically scheduled as part of a regular forecasting algorithm, as samples are added / discarded as part of the data management process, or on demand, for example when the user requests an immediate forecast.
• the average data may be stored prior to compensation for altitude and compensated as it is processed, but this is less optimal since it needs to be processed each time the table is analyzed.
• GPS co-ordinates may be stored with each sample set, this allows for filtering an apparent change in absolute pressure caused by the users horizontal motion in relation to the weather system, where horizontal motion over a few hundred Km may cause apparent pressure changes even in a stable weather system due to the horizontal pressure gradient in the weather system.
• the device of the invention has preferably also a positioning mode, in which it offers the usual functions of a GPS unit, for example position and navigation information, speed, distance and bearing of waypoints, estimated time of arrival, a track graph, and so on.
• a positioning mode in which it offers the usual functions of a GPS unit, for example position and navigation information, speed, distance and bearing of waypoints, estimated time of arrival, a track graph, and so on.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Radar, Positioning & Navigation (AREA)
• Remote Sensing (AREA)
• Environmental & Geological Engineering (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Biodiversity & Conservation Biology (AREA)
• Atmospheric Sciences (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Ecology (AREA)
• Environmental Sciences (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Automation & Control Theory (AREA)
• Position Fixing By Use Of Radio Waves (AREA)
• Measuring Fluid Pressure (AREA)
• Navigation (AREA)
• Electric Clocks (AREA)

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Publications (1)

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Citations (2)

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• 2008
  • 2008-05-22 EP EP08759939A patent/EP2160636A1/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 2008-05-22 KR KR1020127025856A patent/KR101370482B1/ko active Active
  • 2008-05-22 JP JP2010510729A patent/JP2010531974A/ja not_active Withdrawn
  • 2008-05-22 US US12/599,242 patent/US8100004B2/en active Active
  • 2008-05-22 KR KR1020107000305A patent/KR20100028098A/ko not_active Ceased
  • 2008-05-22 CN CN201610269533.9A patent/CN105842757A/zh active Pending
  • 2008-05-22 CN CN200880019080A patent/CN101743487A/zh active Pending
  • 2008-05-22 WO PCT/EP2008/056338 patent/WO2008148649A1/en not_active Ceased
• 2012
  • 2012-10-05 JP JP2012223066A patent/JP2013047686A/ja active Pending
• 2016
  • 2016-03-04 JP JP2016041949A patent/JP2016136156A/ja not_active Withdrawn
• 2018
  • 2018-02-28 JP JP2018034516A patent/JP6580730B2/ja active Active

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