Detection of Aircraft Icing Threat Pixels Using Cloud Properties of MSG Satellite Products Case Study: Tehran-Urmia Flight Route

In the present study, the meteorological conditions of the plane crash on the Tehran-Urmia route on 01/19/2011 were investigated. The ultimate goal of this study is to detect icing threatening pixels in aircraft. To achieve this goal, using the products of Meteosat satellite, the physical properties of the cloud in the northwest were evaluated. First, cloud products were received in Netcdf4 format in 15 minutes. Then, a regular network of geographical coordinates with a spatial resolution of 101×165 was prepared. After the data networking process, cloud characteristics (cloud cover, cloud type, cloud phase, cloud optical depth and cloud temperature) were extracted for the study day in a period of 15 minutes. Finally, by combining cloud characteristics (temperature cloud less than 273 and cloud liquid phase and optical depth less than one) through FIT algorithm, icing mask was modeled for the study area. Examination of cloud characteristics maps shows that the cloud temperature and the cloud phase (liquid state) have played the most important role in creating icing conditions. According to the Aviation Authorities, there are icing pixels on the flight path and at the crash location. Examination of synoptic maps also showed unstable weather conditions with severe convection at the time of the accident in the study area. Finally, under such conditions and with access to moisture sources in the upper layers of the atmosphere and the strengthening of super-cold water vapor, it has provided icing conditions.