Contributing towards sustainable aviation through an electronic flight bag for processing signals from avionic polarimetric weather radars

During the KLEAN project (funded by the EU through the CLEANSKY Joint Technology Initiative), we developed a customized knowledge-based Electronic Flight Bag (EFB). The device, besides performing standard operations such as showing flight-related map, trajectory and environmental information, also implements decisions and optimization schemes based on the information provided by a polarimetric radar signal processor with the precise purpose to assess the risk level related to weather phenomena showing up on the selected route. Indeed, current avionic weather radars are not able to provide accurate information about the weather hazards, with the result that pilots simply avoid the potentially dangerous areas with a greater detour. While only 30% of “red echo” returns represent a real threat, detours involve a longer trajectory and a greater impact on the environment and fuel consumption. We show how the joint use of customized EFB and polarimetric radar can improve pilots’ situational awareness and supports trajectory optimization.