AIRS II Experiment Gets Underway

Contact: Timothy Schneider

The Environmental Technology Laboratory is set to participate in the second Alliance Icing Research Study (AIRS II) in Mirabel, Quebec, with it's Ground-based Remote Icing Detection System (GRIDS). AIRS II, an international experiment which begins on November 5th, has both scientific and operational objectives, whose aims are to improve our understanding and prediction of hazardous in-flight icing conditions. As many as five aircraft will conduct in-situ measurements for comparison with observation from ground-based instrumentation, satellite observations and forecast models.

GRIDS is a collaborative effort between NOAA and the FAA Aviation Weather Research Program. It combines a sensitive polarized, Doppler cloud radar with a three channel microwave radiometer and temperature profile information from the NCEP Rapid Update Cycle model to profile cloud properties and indicate hazardous regions where aircraft would accumulate dangerous super-cooled large droplets.

GRIDS will participate in the the first intensive operations period (IOP), from November 5th through December 12th. GRIDS' role will be to map out cloud properties with a scanning cloud radar and microwave radiometer in support of the scientific objectives of AIRS, and to demonstrate the GRIDS concept which is an operational objective. A second AIRS II IOP will occur in January-February, however, GRIDS will be returning to Colorado to participate in the Winter Icing and Storms Project (WISP) which begins on February 15, 2004, and runs through March 31, 2004.

More Informations

• ETL AIRS-II webpage
  
• GRIDS