Aircraft Icing: In‐Cloud Measurements and Sensitivity to Physical Parameterizations

Abstract

The prediction of supercooled cloud drops in the atmosphere is a basic tool for aviation safety,owing to their contact with and instant freezing on sensitive locations of the aircraft. One of the maindisadvantages for predicting atmospheric icing conditions is the acquisition of observational data. In thisstudy, we used in‐cloud microphysics measurements taken during 10 flights of a C‐212 research aircraftunder winter conditions, during which we encountered 37 regions containing supercooled liquid water. Toinvestigate the capability of the Weather Research and Forecasting model to detect regions containingsupercooled cloud drops, we propose a multiphysics ensemble approach. We used four microphysics and twoplanetary boundary layer schemes. The Morrison parameterization yielded superior results, whereas theplanetary boundary layer schemes were essential in evaluating the presence of liquid water content. TheGoddard microphysics scheme best detected the presence of ice water content but tended to underestimateliquid water content