Detect cloud icing conditions using CloudSat datasets

Cloud icing is one of the meteorological conditions that influence aviation safety. The icing condition is related to microphysical processes that permit existence of supercooled water above freezing levels inside clouds. There is no conventional meteorological observation for this field, but commercial aircrafts do give icing reports whenever they encounter such situations. Prediction of icing conditions is available from combined model and data based products.

The recent launch of NASA A-train satellites provides abilities of detailed observations of clouds from the space on a global scale. In particular, CloudSat datasets are able to provide a direct view at clouds and cloud structures. With these datasets some microphysical property of clouds can be deduced.

In this study, we present some preliminary results about retrieving cloud icing information from CloudSat data, and comparing cloud icing conditions derived from CloudSat with that from aircraft observations.