Aircraft icing measurements in east coast winter storms

Abstract

Analysis of the aircraft icing environments of East Coast winter storms have been made from 31 flights during the second Canadian Atlantic Storms Program. Microphysical parameters have been summarized and are compared to common icing intensity envelopes and to other icing datasets. Cloud regions with supercooled liquid water had an average horizontal extent of 4.3 km, with average droplet concentrations of 130 cm-3, liquid water contents of 0.13 g m-3, and droplet median volume diameters of 18 μm. In general, the icing intensity observed was classified as light, although moderate to severe icing was observed in several common synoptic situations and several cases are discussed. Freezing drizzle was observed on four flights, and represented the most severe icing environment encountered. -Authors