Patent ID: 7486220

Claim:
A radar system for an aircraft, the radar system predicting storm cell characteristics at a future time, the radar system comprising: an antenna adapted to receive signals reflected from a first storm cell; a receiver coupled to the antenna, the receiver adapted to process the received signals thereby forming reflectivity data associated with a scan of the first storm cell; a processor coupled to the receiver, the processor configured to receive the formed reflectivity data; determine a value relating to a characteristic of the first storm cell from the received reflectivity data; identify a second storm cell, wherein the second storm cell is part of the same weather system as the first storm cell; receive a plurality of values relating to the characteristic for the identified second storm cell, the plurality of values determined at a plurality of different times; compare the determined value of the characteristic of the first storm cell with the received plurality of values of the characteristic of the identified second first storm cell; determine a growth rate of the first storm cell; calculate a maximum height of the first storm cell at a third time in the future based on the comparison and the determined growth rate; and present the calculated maximum height of the first storm cell at the third time to a user, and a memory operably coupled to the processor to receive and to store the plurality of values.