Episodes of aircraft icing during ARMEX phase-I

Abstract

In-flight icing is one of the major weather hazards to aviation. During ARMEX Phase-I, there were three occasions out of twenty sorties when in-flight  icing was encountered while flying over Arabian Sea in the Russian made transport aircraft AN-32. The icing episodes were studied vis-à-vis the prevailing synoptic situations and the convective cloud features. It was found that the aircraft was flying in the vicinity of convective cells associated with considerable horizontal wind shear. The temperature at the flight level was observed to vary from -6 to -8° C. The presence of large amount of supercooled water droplets can be assumed to be associated with the active and intense convection that is usually found under the active monsoon conditions.