NCAR-RAP Real-time Integrated Icing Product - Demo Page

THIS PRODUCT IS EXPERIMENTAL AND WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE AT ALL TIMES.
NCAR is not normally a real-time weather data supplier. Data outages are to be expected!
Pilots and aviation forecasters are URGED to check the OFFICIAL ICING FORECASTS
avialable from the Aviation Weather Center.

This page and most of the data on it is maintained by Ben C. Bernstein and Frank McDonough.

Please email us any questions or comments that you have! bernstei@rap.ucar.edu - mcdono@rap.ucar.edu

Other national scale icing fields can be found HERE.

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INTEGRATED ICING PRODUCT OUTPUT - the concept

• Icing fields - Surface projections of maximum values for each column (horizontal grid point)
  • Icing potential
  • SLD potential
  • PIREPs
  • How the icing potential and SLD potential fields are derived.
  
  
• Icing fields - bases, tops and at critical altitudes
  • Top of the icing layer
  • Base of the icing layer
  • Top of the SLD layer
  • Base of the SLD layer
  • How the icing and SLD bases and tops fields are derived.

  • Icing potential, SLD , and icing type at 2500 feet MSL.
  • Icing potential, SLD , and icing type at 5000 feet MSL.
  • Icing potential, SLD , and icing type at 7500 feet MSL.
  • Icing potential, SLD , and icing type at 10000 feet MSL.
  • Icing potential, SLD , and icing type at 15000 feet MSL.
  
  
• Input and derived fields
  • Cloud fields
    • Cloud top temperature derived from the latest GOES-8 infrared image.
    • Cloud top height from a combination of GOES-8 IR and RUC model temperature.
    • Cloud base height from a smoothed analysis of surface observations.
    • How the cloud top temperature, cloud top and cloud base height fields are derived and used.
  • Radar and surface precipitation fields
    • Radar echo coverage from a mapping of the national radar mosaic to each RUC model grid point.
    • Precipitation, freezing precipitation and snow-only precipitation from a smoothed analysis of surface observations and the national radar mosaic.
    • How the radar echo coverage and precipitation fields are derived and used.
  • Model based fields
    • Height of the warm nose - looks for a classic freezing rain (melting) scenario in each column.
    • Number of cloud layers - looks for multiple cloud layers in each column.
    • How the warm nose height and number of layers fields are derived and used.