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Cloud Profiling Radar
The Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) system was installed in the IAR Convair 580 aircraft in the fall of 1999. It was used operationally for the first time during the AIRS aircraft icing project at Mirabel Airport, Quebec, from December, 1999 until February, 2000, in collaboration with the Meteorological Service of Canada.
AIRS is the Alliance Icing Research Study, conducted by the Aircraft Icing Research Alliance (AIRA), a consortium of collaborating research agencies studying aircraft icing. Members include the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), NASA, Transport Canada, Environment Canada, and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), as well as many other research organizations, universities and industrial partners.
The study aims to develop methods to alleviate icing problems which might be encountered during aviation flight operations, in view of recent fatal aircraft accidents attributed to large droplet icing. One objective of AIRS has been to extend the database of aircraft icing measurements to include large droplet icing conditions, in order to provide guidance to aircraft regulators.
The work also aims to improve forecasting methods and develop remote sensing technology (ground or aircraft-based) to provide warnings of icing conditions to pilots. Both passive (radiometers) and active (radar) millimetre-wave microwave sensors are considered to have potential for detecting icing conditions in front of an aircraft. This could permit pilots to avoid these conditions, in much the same manner as current aircraft-based weather radar systems (X-Band) are used to avoid thunderstorms. The CPR data will be used to assess the potential of this technology for airborne use.
