Demonstration of a Nowcasting Service for High Ice Water Content (HIWC) Conditions
Areas of high ice water content (HIWC) within cloud systems may cause power loss events and engine damage in jet aircraft due to ice crystal icing (ICI). The Algorithm for Prediction of HIWC Areas (ALPHA) was developed to identify these regions and enable provision of guidance to airlines. ALPHA com...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-04-01
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| Series: | Atmosphere |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/14/5/786 |
| _version_ | 1827742131148554240 |
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| author | Rodney Potts Julie Haggerty Allyson Rugg Alain Protat |
| author_facet | Rodney Potts Julie Haggerty Allyson Rugg Alain Protat |
| author_sort | Rodney Potts |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Areas of high ice water content (HIWC) within cloud systems may cause power loss events and engine damage in jet aircraft due to ice crystal icing (ICI). The Algorithm for Prediction of HIWC Areas (ALPHA) was developed to identify these regions and enable provision of guidance to airlines. ALPHA combines numerical weather prediction model data, satellite data, and radar data (where available), and applies fuzzy logic to identify the likely presence of HIWC. In a collaboration between the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, and Australian airlines, a trial of ALPHA was conducted for an area across Indonesia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and northern Australia, a region with frequent deep convection and a relatively high incidence of ICI events. ALPHA was adapted to ingest data from the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator model and the Japanese Himawari-8 geostationary meteorological satellite. Radar data was not used. The HIWC product was made available to stakeholder groups for evaluation. Independent validation of the HIWC product was undertaken by comparing it with retrieved profiles of ice water content (IWC) from the cloud profiling radar on the NASA polar-orbiting CloudSat satellite. Conduct of the ALPHA trial and results from validation of the HIWC product provides confidence in the potential utility for flight planning, maintaining situational awareness, and flight monitoring. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T03:57:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9f6b7212c9b14ae59d8152d3ddb51bf4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4433 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T03:57:53Z |
| publishDate | 2023-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Atmosphere |
| spelling | doaj.art-9f6b7212c9b14ae59d8152d3ddb51bf42023-11-18T00:24:51ZengMDPI AGAtmosphere2073-44332023-04-0114578610.3390/atmos14050786Demonstration of a Nowcasting Service for High Ice Water Content (HIWC) ConditionsRodney Potts0Julie Haggerty1Allyson Rugg2Alain Protat3Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, VIC 3001, AustraliaNational Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80307, USANational Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80307, USABureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, VIC 3001, AustraliaAreas of high ice water content (HIWC) within cloud systems may cause power loss events and engine damage in jet aircraft due to ice crystal icing (ICI). The Algorithm for Prediction of HIWC Areas (ALPHA) was developed to identify these regions and enable provision of guidance to airlines. ALPHA combines numerical weather prediction model data, satellite data, and radar data (where available), and applies fuzzy logic to identify the likely presence of HIWC. In a collaboration between the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, and Australian airlines, a trial of ALPHA was conducted for an area across Indonesia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and northern Australia, a region with frequent deep convection and a relatively high incidence of ICI events. ALPHA was adapted to ingest data from the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator model and the Japanese Himawari-8 geostationary meteorological satellite. Radar data was not used. The HIWC product was made available to stakeholder groups for evaluation. Independent validation of the HIWC product was undertaken by comparing it with retrieved profiles of ice water content (IWC) from the cloud profiling radar on the NASA polar-orbiting CloudSat satellite. Conduct of the ALPHA trial and results from validation of the HIWC product provides confidence in the potential utility for flight planning, maintaining situational awareness, and flight monitoring.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/14/5/786aircraft icingice crystal icingHIWCicing algorithmsnowcastingverification |
| spellingShingle | Rodney Potts Julie Haggerty Allyson Rugg Alain Protat Demonstration of a Nowcasting Service for High Ice Water Content (HIWC) Conditions Atmosphere aircraft icing ice crystal icing HIWC icing algorithms nowcasting verification |
| title | Demonstration of a Nowcasting Service for High Ice Water Content (HIWC) Conditions |
| title_full | Demonstration of a Nowcasting Service for High Ice Water Content (HIWC) Conditions |
| title_fullStr | Demonstration of a Nowcasting Service for High Ice Water Content (HIWC) Conditions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Demonstration of a Nowcasting Service for High Ice Water Content (HIWC) Conditions |
| title_short | Demonstration of a Nowcasting Service for High Ice Water Content (HIWC) Conditions |
| title_sort | demonstration of a nowcasting service for high ice water content hiwc conditions |
| topic | aircraft icing ice crystal icing HIWC icing algorithms nowcasting verification |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/14/5/786 |
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