Each time a pilot reports icing within a stovepipe volume of air, it counts as a hit. The smaller the volume of air, the more precise and successful the prediction. According to Ron Olson, the AWC's science and operations officer, Bernstein's stovepipe algorithm is one of five new tools and procedures employed by AWC to meet the FAA's request for more specific icing advisories. The last is an artificial intelligence tool that produces maps of icing intensity using temperature, relative humidity, and convection data from two new, high-resolution weather models running at the NWS's National Centers for Environmental Prediction in Camp Springs, Maryland. That way we're poised to meet new FAA requirements as quickly as possible.
Big planes can climb through the drizzle layer quickly and then fly above it.
Smaller planes, which remain at lower altitudes, may never get above it. This research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation through an interagency agreement in response to requirements and funding by the Federal Aviation Administration's Aviation Weather Development Program. NCAR is managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research under sponsorship by the National Science Foundation. Among other activites, UCAR operates the National Center for Atmospheric Research with National Science Foundation sponsorship.