Super-cooled liquid water droplets detection using dual-polarization radar

Abstract

In a meteorological adverse conditions scenario, surely in-flight icing represents a real danger for the civil aviation, originating aerodynamics instability due to ice accretion on the aircraft surfaces, malfunctions of on-board devices caused by antennas freezing, and problems on the aircraft engines due to the reduction of the temperature in the air combustion process (many examples of aircraft accidents could be reported). In-flight icing risks can be generated not only by ice crystals but also by Super-cooled Liquid Water Droplets (SCLWD), a phenomenon attended in icing formation, growth and evolution. Detecting this phenomenon using weather radar is not trivial and, consequently, makes difficult to identify hazardous in-flight icing zones. The aim of this work is showing a detection method of SCLWD by polarimetric radar data in three (K u , X, S) frequency bands. The polarimetric values of reflectivity and differential reflectivity can provide a technique to recognize the in-flight icing zones and therefore an on-board method to avoid the in-flight icing hazard.