Starting today, Dec. 6, pilots and dispatchers will now have available improved and cockpit-accessible graphical hourly updates on in-flight icing. The National Weather Service will operate the service creatively called the “Current Icing Product,” or CIP, which incorporates more detailed observations and more advanced prediction models than its previous version (FAA approved in 2002). The new product, developed by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, will offer displays that rate areas by icing severity and the probability of encountering icing conditions with selectable altitudes up to 29,000 feet. Aside from making flights safer, the product aims to reduce costs incurred by unnecessary diversions around areas through which properly equipped aircraft could safely fly.
Find the product online in the form of an interactive display here. The National Weather Service will operate the enhanced CIP from the Aviation Weather Center in Kansas City, Mo. CIP will supplement but not replace the information in the NWS AIRMET, the traditional weather alert issued at six-hour intervals.
