Systems and methods for collecting information for selected regions

Abstract

Systems and methods for collecting weather information for selected airspace regions are provided. In one embodiment, a method for collecting weather information for selected airspace regions comprises: receiving aircraft position information for a plurality of aircraft; forming an aircraft weather group based on flight path attributes derived from the aircraft position information; selecting at least a first representative aircraft from the weather group; and receiving at a weather information ground station, weather data from one or more representative aircraft of the aircraft weather group, wherein only the one or more representative aircraft transmit weather information to the weather information ground station from the aircraft weather group.

1 - 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A method for collecting information for a region, the method comprising:
 receiving position information of a plurality of vehicles in a region;   forming a vehicle group of vehicles from among the plurality of vehicles in the region by cross correlating vehicle path attributes derived from the position information to identify vehicles of the plurality of vehicles having similar vehicle path attributes enabling vehicles of the vehicle group to monitor variables in the region;   selecting a vehicle from the vehicle group by calculating a geometric center point of the vehicle group and selecting a vehicle closest to the geometric center point of the vehicle group as the selected vehicle; and   receiving, at a station, information collected from the selected vehicle, the information having been collected at the selected vehicle and not from remaining vehicles in the vehicle group for transmission to the station.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the selecting the vehicle from the vehicle group further includes:
 sending an affirmative transfer signal to the selected vehicle and a negative transfer signal to the remaining vehicles in the vehicle group.   
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the affirmative transfer signal includes one or both of:
 an information transmission request to the selected vehicle; or   an indication of permission to the selected vehicle to transfer current information.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the selecting the selected vehicle from the vehicle group further includes:
 broadcasting group position information to the vehicle group, the group position information including a position of the vehicles of the plurality of vehicles having similar vehicle path attributes and a position of the station; and   wherein the selected vehicle has selected itself as the selected vehicle based on the group position information.   
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the receiving position information for the plurality of vehicles further includes:
 receiving Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) messages from the plurality of vehicles.   
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the forming the vehicle group further includes:
 selecting vehicles from the plurality of vehicles that are travelling towards or through an area-of-interest in the region.   
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the vehicle path attributes include at least one of:
 a direction of travel;   a radar detection direction;   an inter-vehicle distance; and   a position.   
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising:
 selecting an area of interest within the region; and   wherein the receiving, at the station, the information further includes receiving data regarding conditions within the area of interest.   
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 28 , wherein the selecting the area of interest further includes one or both of:
 selecting the area of interest based on current or predicted activity within the area of interest; or   selecting the area of interest as part of a survey of the region.   
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 28 , wherein the selecting the area of interest further includes one or both of:
 receiving an incoming request from a data network for the information for the area of interest; or   selecting the area of interest based on activity detected by sensors.   
     
     
         31 . A system for collecting information for a region, the system comprising:
 a transceiver configured to communicate with a plurality of vehicles via one or more data communication links; and   a data processing system coupled to the transceiver, the data processing system comprising a memory storing instructions and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to execute the instructions to execute a process including:
 receiving position information of the plurality of vehicles in a region via the one or more data communications links; 
 forming a vehicle group of vehicles from among the plurality of vehicles in the region by cross correlating vehicle path attributes derived from the position information to identify vehicles of the plurality of vehicles having similar vehicle path attributes enabling vehicles of the vehicle group to monitor variables in the region; 
 selecting a vehicle from the vehicle group by calculating a geometric center point of the vehicle group and selecting a vehicle closest to the geometric center point of the vehicle group as the selected vehicle; and 
 receiving, at a station, information collected from the selected vehicle via the one or more data communications links, the information having been collected at the selected vehicle and not from remaining vehicles in the vehicle group for transmission to the station. 
   
     
     
         32 . The system of  claim 31 , wherein the process executed by the processor further includes:
 transmitting an affirmative transfer signal to the selected vehicle and a negative transfer signal to the remaining vehicles of the vehicle group.   
     
     
         33 . The system of  claim 32 , wherein the affirmative transfer signal includes one or both of:
 a information transmission request to the selected vehicle; or   an indication of permission to the selected vehicle to transfer current information.   
     
     
         34 . The system of  claim 31 , wherein the process executed by the processor further includes:
 broadcasting group position information to the vehicle group, the group position information including a position of the vehicles of the plurality of vehicles having similar vehicle path attributes and a position of the station.   
     
     
         35 . The system of  claim 31 , wherein the process executed by the processor further includes:
 deriving the vehicle path attributes based on Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) messages received from the plurality of vehicles.   
     
     
         36 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the vehicle path attributes include at least one of:
 a direction of travel;   a radar detection direction;   an inter-vehicle distance; and   a position.   
     
     
         37 . The system of  claim 31 , wherein the process executed by the processor further includes:
 selecting an area of interest within the region; and   receiving, at the station, the information, data regarding conditions within the area of interest.