KMD 550/850 Pilot's Guide
41
WX-1000E Stormscope
®
Operation
Rev 7 Sep/2005
WX-1000E STORMSCOPE
®
OPERATION
INTRODUCTION
The Bendix/King KMD 550/850 is capable of being interfaced to an L3
WX-1000E Stormscope
®
Series II Weather Mapping Sensor. The WX-
1000E detects electrical discharges associated with thunderstorms within
a 200 nm radius of the aircraft. The information is then sent to the KMD
550/850 and will display the location of the thunderstorms both on the
map displays and on a dedicated Stormscope
®
display.
For a detailed description of the WX-1000E and how to interpret the light-
ning display, please reference the WX-1000E Stormscope
®
User’s
Guide.
FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION
The antenna detects the electric and magnetic fields generated by intra-
cloud, inter-cloud, or cloud-to-ground electrical discharges that occur
within a 200 nm radius of the aircraft and sends the resulting "discharge
signals" to the processor. The processor digitizes, analyzes, and con-
verts the discharge signals into range and bearing data then stores the
data in memory. The WX-1000E processor then communicates this infor-
mation to the KMD 550/850 as areas of detected lightning (not individual
lightning discharges).
If areas of lightning are detected within 25 nm of the aircraft, the
normal stormscope icon in the Functions Legend will change to
one such as that shown here.
OPERATION
As mentioned earlier, the WX-1000E lightning information is displayed on
the KMD 550/850. The focus on this section is to provide both back-
ground information and a more detailed explanation of the operating pro-
cedures. The following text assumes you have both the WX-1000E and
the KMD 550/850 switched on and that you have selected the
Stormscope
®
display using the WX Function Select Key on the KMD
550/850.
KMD 550-850 PG R8 3/6/07 11:22 AM Page 41