Harmonization and Verification of Three National European Icing Forecast Models Using Pilot Reports

The Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) program aims at modernizing and harmonizing the European airspace, which currently has a strongly fragmented character. Besides turbulence and convection, in-flight icing is part of SESAR and can be seen as one of the most important met...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Christoph Knigge, Katie Bennett, Christine Le Bot, Mara Gehlen-Zeller, Svenja Koos
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2022-01-01
Series:Advances in Meteorology
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/7920779
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832565781265645568
author Christoph Knigge
Katie Bennett
Christine Le Bot
Mara Gehlen-Zeller
Svenja Koos
author_facet Christoph Knigge
Katie Bennett
Christine Le Bot
Mara Gehlen-Zeller
Svenja Koos
author_sort Christoph Knigge
collection DOAJ
description The Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) program aims at modernizing and harmonizing the European airspace, which currently has a strongly fragmented character. Besides turbulence and convection, in-flight icing is part of SESAR and can be seen as one of the most important meteorological phenomena, which may lead to hazardous flight conditions for aircraft. In this study, several methods with varying complexities are analyzed for combining three individual in-flight icing forecasts based on numerical weather prediction models from Deutscher Wetterdienst, Météo-France, and Met Office. The optimal method will then be used to operate one single harmonized in-flight icing forecast over Europe. As verification data, pilot reports (PIREPs) are used, which provide information about hazardous weather and are currently the only direct regular measure of in-flight icing events available. In order to assess the individual icing forecasts and the resulting combinations, the probability of detection skill score is calculated based on multicategory contingency tables for the forecast icing intensities. The scores are merged into a single skill score to give an overview of the quality of the icing forecast and enable comparison of the different model combination approaches. The concluding results show that the most complex combination approach, which uses iteratively optimized weighting factors for each model, provides the best forecast quality according to the PIREPs. The combination of the three icing forecasts results in a harmonized icing forecast that exceeds the skill of each individual icing forecast, thus providing an improvement to in-flight icing forecasts over Europe.
format Article
id doaj-art-5e498e31af3b4dc1ad27661a895875cd
institution Kabale University
issn 1687-9317
language English
publishDate 2022-01-01
publisher Wiley
record_format Article
series Advances in Meteorology
spelling doaj-art-5e498e31af3b4dc1ad27661a895875cd2025-02-03T01:06:39ZengWileyAdvances in Meteorology1687-93172022-01-01202210.1155/2022/7920779Harmonization and Verification of Three National European Icing Forecast Models Using Pilot ReportsChristoph Knigge0Katie Bennett1Christine Le Bot2Mara Gehlen-Zeller3Svenja Koos4Deutscher WetterdienstUK Met OfficeMétéo-FranceDeutscher WetterdienstDeutscher WetterdienstThe Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) program aims at modernizing and harmonizing the European airspace, which currently has a strongly fragmented character. Besides turbulence and convection, in-flight icing is part of SESAR and can be seen as one of the most important meteorological phenomena, which may lead to hazardous flight conditions for aircraft. In this study, several methods with varying complexities are analyzed for combining three individual in-flight icing forecasts based on numerical weather prediction models from Deutscher Wetterdienst, Météo-France, and Met Office. The optimal method will then be used to operate one single harmonized in-flight icing forecast over Europe. As verification data, pilot reports (PIREPs) are used, which provide information about hazardous weather and are currently the only direct regular measure of in-flight icing events available. In order to assess the individual icing forecasts and the resulting combinations, the probability of detection skill score is calculated based on multicategory contingency tables for the forecast icing intensities. The scores are merged into a single skill score to give an overview of the quality of the icing forecast and enable comparison of the different model combination approaches. The concluding results show that the most complex combination approach, which uses iteratively optimized weighting factors for each model, provides the best forecast quality according to the PIREPs. The combination of the three icing forecasts results in a harmonized icing forecast that exceeds the skill of each individual icing forecast, thus providing an improvement to in-flight icing forecasts over Europe.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/7920779
spellingShingle Christoph Knigge
Katie Bennett
Christine Le Bot
Mara Gehlen-Zeller
Svenja Koos
Harmonization and Verification of Three National European Icing Forecast Models Using Pilot Reports
Advances in Meteorology
title Harmonization and Verification of Three National European Icing Forecast Models Using Pilot Reports
title_full Harmonization and Verification of Three National European Icing Forecast Models Using Pilot Reports
title_fullStr Harmonization and Verification of Three National European Icing Forecast Models Using Pilot Reports
title_full_unstemmed Harmonization and Verification of Three National European Icing Forecast Models Using Pilot Reports
title_short Harmonization and Verification of Three National European Icing Forecast Models Using Pilot Reports
title_sort harmonization and verification of three national european icing forecast models using pilot reports
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/7920779
work_keys_str_mv AT christophknigge harmonizationandverificationofthreenationaleuropeanicingforecastmodelsusingpilotreports
AT katiebennett harmonizationandverificationofthreenationaleuropeanicingforecastmodelsusingpilotreports
AT christinelebot harmonizationandverificationofthreenationaleuropeanicingforecastmodelsusingpilotreports
AT maragehlenzeller harmonizationandverificationofthreenationaleuropeanicingforecastmodelsusingpilotreports
AT svenjakoos harmonizationandverificationofthreenationaleuropeanicingforecastmodelsusingpilotreports