ETL Ground-based Remote Icing Detection System Transitions to the FAA

Contact: Tim Schneider

The Environmental Technology Laboratory's Ground-based Remote Icing Detection System (GRIDS) is being developed as a part of the FAA's Aviation Weather Research Program. For four years, GRIDS has resided within the In-flight Icing Product Development Team, but beginning this fiscal year, GRIDS will reside within the Advanced Weather Radar Techniques (AWRT) Product Development Team (PDT). This move was made because GRIDS has other capabilities beyond icing detection and the new PDT will allow these additional capabilities to be better utilized.

With this move, GRIDS' principal investigator has also been named as an alternate lead of the new PDT. Collaborating on the AWRT Product Development Team are the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Labs, and NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory (AWRT team lead).

GRIDS is a unique combination of remote sensing technologies that were pioneered at ETL. It combines a sensitive, profiling cloud radar capable of discriminating between liquid and ice particles; a microwave radiometer to independently quantify the amount of cloud liquid present and infer cloud temperature; and a data system that integrates these data streams with information from the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction Rapid Update Cycle model. GRIDS produces an in-flight icing hazard product, physical information about the local clouds, and profiles of cloud presence useful for such applications as ceiling and visibility.

More Information

• Ground-based Remote Icing Detection System (GRIDS)
• Winter Icing and Storms Project (WISP)