Detecting Icing Clouds

Researchers at New Jersey’s Rowan University are testing ways to detect icing conditions pilots should avoid. The Rowan team has been focusing on ice clouds and crystals, developing an ice cloud chamber and measuring its change in polarization, according to the university’s research and grants web site. Previously, there was no way to determine which clouds are hazardous.
“The team re-created ice clouds in an ice cloud chamber on a small scale, successfully forming ice crystals with the same characteristics of those in nature,” said the web site. “Using these lab-created crystals, they can project a laser beam through the chamber, measuring its change in polarization, which is dependent on the size, shape and distribution of ice crystals in the cloud. The polarization state of light is invisible to the naked eye, but measurable using sensitive lenses and photo-detectors. Eventually, this process could enable a pilot to use low-power lasers to detect the crystals in time to allow the plane to avoid the crystal-bearing clouds.”