Alliance Icing Research Study II

Mirabel Airport, Quebec : Nov 2003 - Mar 2004

Workshops & Conferences:

• 2006 AIAA - Reno page
• 2005 AIRSII workshop page
• 2005 AIAA - Reno page
• 2004 AIRSII workshop page

On-Line Documents:

• Letter of Intent for AIRS II [PDF]
• AIRS II Science Plan (2003-07-07) [PDF]
• AIRS II Operations Plan (Draft 7) [.DOC]
• NASA Langley AIRS II Addendum Draft 3 (2003-11-14) [.DOC]

MSC Data Collection:

• AVISA Data Collection page
• Ontario Region AIRS 2 Website (user/password required at site)
• Ontario Region AIRS 2 FTP Site (user/password required at site)

Operational Objectives:

AIRS II has operational objectives to:

1. develop techniques/systems to remotely detect, diagnose and forecast hazardous winter conditions at airports.
2. improve weather forecasts of aircraft icing conditions.
3. better characterize the aircraft-icing environment.
4. improve our understanding of the icing process and its affect on aircraft.

In order to support the operational objectives, the following science objectives will be addressed to:

1. investigate the conditions associated with supercooled large drop formation.
2. determine conditions governing cloud glaciation.
3. document the spatial distribution of ice crystals and supercooled water and the conditions under which they co-exist.
4. verify the response of remote sensors to various cloud particles, and determine how this can be exploited to remotely determine cloud composition.

It is anticipated that several instrumented research aircraft operating out of Ottawa will be used in AIRS II. These aircraft will fly special flight operations over a network of ground in-situ and remote-sensing meteorological measurement systems, located at Mirabel. Some prototype airport weather forecasting systems, which use satellite and surface-based remote sensors, PIREPS, and numerical forecast models, will be evaluated during the project. The aircraft will also provide data to verify the remote-sensing algorithms, numerical forecast models, and forecast systems, used to detect and predict icing conditions.

AIRS II is an exciting collaborative effort among many scientists and organizations. It will assist in providing the aviation community better tools to avoid aircraft icing, and to improve the efficiency of airport operations. It will also enable some unique basic science objectives to be addressed such as: how supercooled large drops form, how cloud ice forms, and how to better remotely detect cloud properties.

AIRS II Participating Organizations:

Canada:
Meteorological Service of Canada
Institute for Aerospace Research of NRC
Transport Canada
Canadian National Search and Rescue Secretariat
Defence Research and Development Canada
McGill University
McMaster University
Trent University

United States:
NASA-Glenn Research Center
National Center for Atmospheric Research
NOAA - Environmental Technology Laboratory
Federal Aviation Administration
National Science Foundation
CRREL
Mount Washington Observatory
Desert Research Institute
University of Colorado
Colorado State University
Purdue University
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Europe:
Meteo-France
British Met Office