Response of Cloud Microphysical Instruments to Aircraft Icing Conditions.
Abstract
A series of passes on 6 December 1979 through multilayered-supercooled stratiform and stratocumulus clouds by the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory's instrumented C-130E cloud physics research aircraft is used to evaluate a Rosemount Ice Detector. The response of the detector to icing conditions is compared with measurements from a J-W liquid water content meter and the Knollenberg Axial Scattering Spectrometer Probe (ASSP). A procedure to adjust for zero drift of the J-W instrument is developed. Comparison of liquid water measurements from the J-W and from the ASSP indicate that these data are highly correlated and similar in magnitude. A procedure for extracting useful information from the Rosemount Ice detector has been developed. The icing conditions in the cloud systems studied are typical of the range of conditions in winter stratiform clouds. Liquid water (LWC) values of 0.3 g/cu m and median volume diameters of 15 micrometers were most frequently observed. The results of the analysis show that the Rosemount Ice Detector is a sensitive indicator of the fluctuations of liquid water in clouds with LWC not exceeding 0.8 g/cu m -3. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 06, 1981
- Accession Number
- ADA112317
Entities
People
- Donald D. Grantham
- Morton Glass
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory