Combining In-situ Measurements, Passive Satellite Imagery, and Active Radar Retrievals for the Detection of High Ice Water Content

Christopher R. Yost (1) , Patrick Minnis (2) , Kristopher M. Bedka (2) , Louis Nguyen (3) , Rabindra Palikonda (1) , Douglas Spangenberg (1) , John Walter Strapp (4) , Julien Delanoë (5) , Alain Protat (6)

1 SSAI - Science Systems and Applications, Inc. [Lanham]
2 LaRC - NASA Langley Research Center [Hampton]
3 NASA
4 Met Analytics Inc. [Toronto]
5 SPACE - LATMOS
6 BoM - Australian Bureau of Meteorology [Melbourne]

At least one hundred jet engine power loss events since the 1990s have been attributed to the phenomenon known as ice crystal icing (ICI). Ingestion of high concentrations of ice particles into aircraft engines is thought to cause these events, but it is clear that the use of current on-board weather radar systems alone is insufficient for detecting conditions that might cause ICI. Passive radiometers in geostationary orbit are valuable for monitoring systems that produce high ice water content (HIWC) and will play an important role in nowcasting, but are incapable of making vertically resolved measurements of ice particle concentration, i.e., ice water content (IWC). Combined radar, lidar, and in-situ measurements are essential for developing a skilled satellite-based HIWC nowcasting technique. The High Altitude Ice Crystals – High Ice Water Content (HAIC-HIWC) field campaigns in Darwin, Australia, and Cayenne, French Guiana, have produced a valuable dataset of in-situ total water content (TWC) measurements with which to study conditions that produce HIWC. The NASA Langley Satellite ClOud and Radiative Property retrieval System (SatCORPS) was used to derive cloud physical and optical properties such cloud top height, temperature, optical depth, and ice water path from multi-spectral satellite imagery acquired throughout the HAIC-HIWC campaigns. These cloud properties were collocated with the in-situ TWC measurements in order to characterize cloud properties in the vicinity of HIWC. Additionally, a database of satellite-derived overshooting cloud top (OT) detections was used to identify TWC measurements in close proximity to convective cores likely producing large concentrations of ice crystals. Certain cloud properties show some sensitivity to increasing TWC and a multivariate probabilistic indicator of HIWC was developed from these datasets. This paper describes the algorithm development and demonstrates the HIWC indicator with imagery from the HAIC-HIWC campaigns. Vertically resolved IWC retrievals from active sensors such as the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) on CloudSat and the Doppler Radar System Airborne (RASTA) provide IWC profiles with which to validate and potentially enhance the satellite-based HIWC indicator.

Domaines: Météorologie

Christopher R. Yost, Patrick Minnis, Kristopher M. Bedka, Louis Nguyen, Rabindra Palikonda, et al.. Combining In-situ Measurements, Passive Satellite Imagery, and Active Radar Retrievals for the Detection of High Ice Water Content. AGU Fall Meeting 2016, Dec 2016, San Francisco, United States. pp.A23A-0185. ⟨insu-01414794⟩