Atmospheric Icing Rates with Elevation on Northern New England Mountains, U.S.A.

Abstract

Atmospheric rime icing, resulting primarily from supercooled cloud droplet impaction on objects at the Earth's surface, was monitored and analyzed as a function of elevation on the west faces of Madonna Peak and Mount Mansfield in the Green Mountains, Vermont, and at the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire. Measurements were made of ice accretion rates on passive, manually operated collection baskets and automatic ice detectors. Icing rates increase exponentially with elevation above about 800 m, with secondary controls of rate suggested by microtopographic relief exposure. The illustrated dependence of icing rate upon elevation is largely a function of New England wind and cloud regimes and differs from other selected mountainous locations. The relationships presented may help assess the magnitude of frozen moisture inputs to high-elevation mountain ecosystems.