In an effort to better diagnose areas of hazardous in-flight icing, NASA-Langley satellite derived cloud top microphysical products (hereafter referred to as LaRC Cloud Products) are being considered for integration into the Current Icing Product (CIP), which is used operationally as an in-flight icing nowcasting system. A comparison between pilot reports (PIREPs) of icing severity and the LaRC cloud products was conducted to determine correlations between specific satellite products and icing severity. Similar studies using a set of archived PIREPs have been done with other input data sources that have been incorporated into CIP.

The LaRC Cloud Products evaluated were cloud phase, liquid water path (LWP), ice water path (IWP), effective radius (Re), and effective diameter (De). This comparison used an icing PIREP and the 64 satellite pixels surrounding its location. The data were also stratified into eight different meteorological scenarios, defined by the CIP, in which it is possible for in-flight icing to occur. From this matched dataset boxplots were created to display the median and 25th and 75th percentile values of the LaRC cloud products' 64 satellite pixels versus icing severity for each PIREP.

This study has helped to clarify which of the LaRC Cloud Products can be the most beneficial additions to CIP and provide guidance on how best to use them in the CIP algorithm. Preliminary results indicate that LWP and IWP show positive correlation with icing severity in most meteorological scenarios. Results from all cloud products will be presented at the conference.