Multirotor UAV icing correlated to liquid water content measurements in natural supercooled clouds

Abstract

Atmospheric icing, the accumulation of ice on surfaces, is a severe concern for the aviation industry. Deicing and icing prediction tools are necessary for pilots to ensure flight safety, and while there is established technology for large aircraft icing, more research is needed for smaller uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs). Here, we present measurements from 59 flights of a multirotor UAV into wintertime low stratus clouds of temperatures between $-$3 and $-$10 °C. The UAV is equipped with rotor heating to allow flights up to 10 min in icing conditions. Icing severity was quantified by using the rate of increase in battery current during icing, and was then compared with simultaneous, co-located measurements of liquid water content (LWC). LWC measurements were (a) calculated from cloud droplets measured with an in situ holographic imager on a tethered balloon system and (b) retrieved from remote sensing observations (microwave radiometer, ceilometer, cloud radar). We show that, for these environmental conditions, icing was strongly positively correlated to LWC over an LWC range of 0.02 to 0.5 g m⁻³, independent of temperature and mean droplet size, though droplets $>50$ $\mathrm{\mu m}$ in diameter may contribute to increased icing severity. We also show that the LWC retrieved from remote sensing agrees well with the in situ measurements, indicating that remote sensing measurements can effectively be used to assess icing conditions. These are the first known measurements of multirotor UAV icing with co-located LWC measurements in natural clouds.