Aircraft Icing Measurements in East Coast Winter Storms

Abstract

Analysis of the aircraft icing environments of East Coast winter storms have been made from 3 1 flights duringthe 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 μ, liquid water contents of 0.13 g m-3, and droplet median volume diameters of 18 pm. In general, the icing intensity observed was classified as light, although moderate to severe icing was observed in several common synoptic situationsand several cases are discussed. Freezing drizzle was observed on four flights, and represented the most severeicing environment encountered.