Patent ID: 8244418

Claim:
A system for generating an alert signal in an aircraft system, said system comprising: a datalink system through which externally-sourced weather data is transmitted to an aircraft; a source of navigation data; and a weather alert processor configured to receive the externally-sourced weather data from the datalink system, where such externally-sourced weather data is representative of a defined, three-dimensional weather area comprised of delineated horizontal limits, a designated ceiling altitude, and a designated floor altitude where a floor of the defined, three-dimensional weather area is other than the surface of the Earth, determine the boundaries of a three-dimensional weather alert zone as a function of the defined, three-dimensional weather area, where the three-dimensional weather alert zone is comprised of a plurality of surfaces, where at least one surface is a vertically-disposed perimeter surface, one surface is a horizontally-disposed ceiling surface, and one surface is a horizontally-disposed floor surface where a floor of the defined, three-dimensional weather area is other than the surface of the Earth, receive navigation data representative of aircraft position, determine an alert position as a function of the aircraft position, generate a weather alert signal if the alert position falls within the plurality of surfaces of the three-dimensional weather alert zone, and provide the weather alert signal to an alerting system comprised of at least one alerting unit.