Alliance Icing Research Study (AIRS II)The NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory participated in the second Alliance Icing Research Study (AIRS II) in Mirabel, Quebec, with it's Ground-based Remote Icing Detection System (GRIDS). AIRS II, an international experiment which has both scientific and operational objectives, and whose aim was to improve our understanding and prediction of hazardous in-flight icing conditions. As many as five aircraft conducted in-situ measurements for comparison with observation from ground-based instrumentation, satellite observations and forecast models. GRIDS is a collaborative effort between NOAA and the FAA Aviation Weather Research Program. It combines a sensitive polarized, Doppler cloud radar with a three channel microwave radiometer and temperature profile information from the NCEP Rapid Update Cycle model to profile cloud properties and indicate hazardous regions where aircraft would accumulate dangerous super-cooled large droplets. GRIDS participated in the the first of two intensive operations period (IOP), which ran from November 5th through December 12th. GRIDS' will mapped out cloud properties with its scanning cloud radar and microwave radiometer in support of the scientific objectives of AIRS, and demonstrated the GRIDS concept which is an operational objective. A second AIRS II IOP will occur in January-February, however, GRIDS will be returned to Colorado to participate in the Winter Icing and Storms Project (WISP04; url here) which ran from February 15 through March 31st. |
