Patent ID: 7982658

Claim:
A method for assessing weather in proximity to an airborne aircraft, the method comprising: receiving a radar return from observed weather; determining reflectivity information from the received radar return; retrieving a weather model from a weather model database comprising a plurality of weather models, wherein the weather model is defined by at least one weather modeling algorithm; inputting the determined reflectivity information into the at least one weather modeling algorithm of the weather model; determining modeled weather based upon the reflectivity information input into the at least one weather modeling algorithm; comparing the modeled weather determined from the retrieved weather model with the determined reflectivity information of the observed weather to determine if the modeled weather represents the observed weather; selecting the weather model in response to the modeled weather representing the observed weather; predicting a characteristic of the observed weather based upon the selected weather model; and determining if the predicted characteristic is potentially hazardous to the airborne aircraft.