Outstanding Publication Award
Recipient(s)
Roy Rasmussen, Jothiram Vivekanandan, and Jeff Cole. Co-authors included: M. Kuperman (United Airlines, San Francisco, CA), Barry Myers (Transport Canada, Montreal, Quebec), and Charles Masters (FAA, Atlantic City, NJ).
Award Year
2000
Award Type
internal
Awarding Organization or Entity
UCAR
A combination of five years of fundamental research and practical application went into these papers, which analyze a series of aircraft accidents that involved inadequate deicing. The authors found that the standard relationship between snowfall intensity and visibility that is used by many weather services can be misleading because of variations in snow type and differences in how visibility is affected by snowfall during the day versus the night. Because of this work, airlines have improved the procedures they use to estimate snowfall rates.