Good News From the FAA's InFlight Icing Product Development Team

The FAA's Aviation Weather Research Program supports Product Development Teams (PDTs) conducting research and development for distinct weather hazards. One of these is inflight icing; it's been awhile since our last progress report and we have some exciting new developments that should be of interest to a wide audience.

The Inflight Icing PDT works in ten task areas: automated algorithms, icing physics research, remote sensor methods, improved numerical weather modeling, statistical methods, satellite-based icing detection, evaluations and assessments, Alaskan icing products, user interaction, and data up- and down-linking. Highlights of progress in these areas will be summarized, and tantalizing tidbits of the research will be presented. Five organizations are funded by the PDT to solve problems of icing detection, forecasting, and dissemination of products. We also conduct applied research on cloud microphysics and dynamics, mesoscale and synoptic meteorology, and ice accretion physics. The PDT interacts directly and indirectly with a myriad of additional government agencies, universities, and private companies, and has strong collaborations with other PDTs, the FAA Icing Steering Committee, NASA GRC, the NTSB and several international projects.

Many papers in the Ninth Conference on Aviation, Range and Aerospace Meteorology will discuss details of the program, including microphysical model parameterization for freezing drizzle, progress in remote sensing of icing conditions, verification techniques appropriate for icing forecasting, and analysis of measurements obtained in field programs. This paper will serve as an introduction to the varied work conducted and coordinated by the PDT, and will touch upon subjects not covered in more detail elsewhere.