NASA - SatCORPS - LaRC Aircraft Icing
NASA Langley Aircraft Icing Home Page
NASA Langley Aircraft Icing Home Page
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Quick Links + Dominant Icing+ Maximum Icing + Cloud Fraction + Ice cloud tau + Z Bottom icing mean + Z Bottom icing min + Z top icing max + Z top icing mean |
The Icing Potential described here is the risk of ice buildup on the frame of an aircraft flying through clouds. It is not to be confused with ice buildup associated with freezing rain below cloud base, in the aircraft terminal area, or with another aviation icing hazard related to the jet engine ingestion of high concentrations of ice crystals. In-flight airframe icing can cause performance and control problems. For icing conditions to occur, the cloud must contain super-cooled liquid water (SLW); unfrozen water droplets that occur naturally in a wide variety of cloud types at temperatures below freezing. Icing can occur anywhere, but the most dangerous conditions are typically found in cold low-level stratus clouds, deep convective clouds and deep clouds associated with synoptic scale cyclonic storm systems.
The icing potential estimates are most useful in the daytime due to the higher sensitivity of satellite solar reflectance measurements to icing conditions. At night, only infrared channels are available which are not as sensitive to the icing potential. Nevertheless, the nighttime data can be used quite accurately to identify clouds with SLW tops, and to eliminate thin clouds from the icing threat. Thus, a simple yes/no/unknown nighttime index of the icing potential is provided at night, while the daytime index includes estimates of the icing probability and intensity. Icing layer altitude boundaries are also estimated. More detailed information on the satellite icing potential methods can be found here:
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NASA Fact
On January 31, 1958, Explorer 1 became the first artificial satellite launched into space by the United States. Onboard was a cosmic ray detector designed to measure the radiation environment in Earth orbit.
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