AC 00-6B Aviation Weather: Icing
In general, icing is any deposit of ice forming on an object. It is one of the major weather hazards to aviation. Icing is a cumulative hazard. The longer an aircraft collects icing, the worse the hazard becomes.
Supercooled Water
Freezing is a complex process. Pure water suspended in the air does not freeze until it reaches a temperature of -40 °C. This occurs because surface tension of the droplets inhibits freezing. The smaller and purer the water droplet, the more likely it is supercooled. Also, supercooled water can exist as large drops known as Supercooled Large Drops (SLD). SLDs are common in freezing rain and freezing drizzle situations.
Supercooled water content of clouds varies with temperature. Between 0 and -10 °C clouds consist mainly of supercooled water droplets. Between -10 and -20 °C, liquid droplets coexist with ice crystals. Below -20 °C, clouds are generally composed entirely of ice crystals. However, strong vertical currents (e.g., cumulonimbus) may carry supercooled water to great heights where temperatures are as low as -40 °C.
Supercooled water will readily freeze if sufficiently agitated. This explains why airplanes collect ice when they pass through a liquid cloud or precipitation composed of supercooled droplets.
Structural Icing
Structural icing is the stuff that sticks to the outside of the airplane. It occurs when supercooled water droplets strike the airframe and freeze. Structural icing can be categorized into three types: rime, clear (or glaze), and mixed.
Rime ice is rough, milky, and opaque ice formed by the instantaneous freezing of small, supercooled water droplets after they strike the aircraft. Rime icing formation favors colder temperatures, lower liquid water content, and small droplets. It grows when droplets rapidly freeze upon striking an aircraft. The rapid freezing traps air and forms a porous, brittle, opaque, and milky-colored ice. Rime ice grows into the air stream from the forward edges of wings and other exposed parts of the airframe.
Clear ice (or glaze ice) is a glossy, clear, or translucent ice formed by the relatively slow freezing of large, supercooled water droplets. Clear icing conditions exist more often in an environment with warmer temperatures, higher liquid water contents, and larger droplets. Clear ice forms when only a small portion of the drop freezes immediately while the remaining unfrozen portion flows or smears over the aircraft surface and gradually freezes. Few air bubbles are trapped during this gradual process.
Clear icing is a more hazardous ice type for many reasons. It tends to form horns near the top and bottom of the airfoils leading edge, which greatly affects airflow. This results in an area of disrupted and turbulent airflow that is considerably larger than that caused by rime ice. Since it is clear and difficult to see, the pilot may not be able to quickly recognize that it is occurring.
Supercooled Large Drops (SLD) is a type of clear icing that is especially dangerous to flight operations is ice formed from SLDs. These are water droplets in a subfreezing environment with diameters larger than 40 microns, such as freezing drizzle (40 to 200 microns) and freezing rain (>200 microns). These larger droplets can flow along the airfoil for some distance prior to freezing. SLDs tend to form a very lumpy, uneven, and textured ice similar to glass in a bathroom window.
Mixed ice is a mixture of clear ice and rime ice. It forms as an airplane collects both rime and clear ice due to small-scale (tens of kilometers or less) variations in liquid water content, temperature, and droplet sizes. Mixed ice appears as layers of relatively clear and opaque ice when examined from the side.
Icing Factors
Structural icing is determined by many factors. The meteorological quantities most closely related to icing type and severity are, in order of importance: Supercooled Liquid Water Content (SLWC), temperature (altitude), and droplet size. However, aircraft type/design and airspeed are also important factors.
For icing to occur, the outside air temperature must be below 0 °C. As clouds get colder, SLWC decreases until only ice crystals remain. Thus, almost all icing tends to occur in the temperature interval between 0 °C and -20 °C, with about half of all reports occurring between -8 °C and -12 °C. In altitude terms, the peak of occurrence is near 10,000 feet, with approximately half of incidents occurring between 5,000 feet and 13,000 feet. The only physical cold limit to icing is at -40 °C because liquid droplets freeze without nuclei present.
In general, rime icing tends to occur at temperatures colder than -15 °C, clear when the temperature is warmer than -10 °C, and mixed ice at temperatures in between.
Icing in Stratiform Clouds
Icing in middle and low-level stratiform clouds is confined, on the average, to a layer between 3,000 and 4,000 feet thick. Thus, a change in altitude of only a few thousand feet may take the aircraft out of icing conditions, even if it remains in clouds. High-level stratiform clouds (i.e., at temperatures colder than -20 °C) are composed mostly of ice crystals and produce little icing.
Icing in Cumuliform Clouds
The icing layer in cumuliform clouds is smaller horizontally, but greater vertically than in stratiform clouds. Icing is more variable in cumuliform clouds because many of the factors conducive to icing depend on the particular cloud’s stage of development.
Icing with Fronts
Most icing reports occur in the vicinity of fronts. This icing can occur both above and below the front. For significant icing to occur above the front, the warm air must be lifted and cooled to saturation at temperatures below zero, making it contain supercooled water droplets. The supercooled water droplets freeze on impact with an aircraft. If the warm air is unstable, icing may be sporadic; if it is stable, icing may be continuous over an extended area. A line of showers or thunderstorms along a cold front may produce icing, but only in a comparatively narrow band along the front.
A favored location for severe clear icing is freezing rain and/or freezing drizzle below a front. Rain forms above the frontal surface at temperatures warmer than freezing. Subsequently, it falls through air at temperatures below freezing and becomes supercooled. Ice pellets indicate icing above.
Icing with Mountains
Icing is more likely and more severe in mountainous regions. Mountain ranges cause upward air motions on their windward side. These vertical currents support large supercooled water droplets above the freezing level.
The most severe icing occurs above the crests and on the ridges’ windward side. This zone usually extends to about 5,000 feet above the mountaintops, but can extend much higher if cumuliform clouds develop. Icing with mountains can be especially hazardous because a pilot may be unable to descend to above freezing temperatures due to terrain elevation.
Icing Hazards
Wind tunnel and flight tests have shown that frost, snow, and ice accumulations (on the leading edge or upper surface of the wing) no thicker or rougher than a piece of coarse sandpaper can reduce lift by 30 percent and increase drag up to 40 percent. Larger accretions can reduce lift even more and can increase drag by 80 percent or more.
The airplane may stall at much higher speeds and lower angles of attack than normal. It can roll or pitch uncontrollably, and recovery might be impossible.
Test you knowledge of icing.