MWISP - the Mt. Washington Icing Sensor Project. The purpose of the project, funded by NASA and the FAA with about 15 participating organizations, was intended to evaluate remote sensing technologies for sensing icing conditions ahead of aircraft for avoidance and escape. These instruments, provided by the Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) of Hanover, NH, and Stratton Park Engineering Company (SPEC) of Boulder, CO, provided "gound truth" information about cloud liquid water and drop sizes sensed by radars, radiometers and a lidar located at the cog railway base station.
Click on a photo below to have a larger version open up in a new window (javascript required)
![]() |
An array of probes mounted on the summit obervatory tower during April for MWISP - the Mt. Washington Icing Sensor Project. |
![]() |
SPEC scientists, Tara Jensen and Pat Zmarsley, monitor their Cloud Particle Imager (CPI) in the summit observatory building. This system images and measures ice crystals and water droplets from 5 to 2300 microns in diameter with 2.3 micron resolution, producing near photographic quality records of drops and crystal habit. |
![]() |
CRREL's Particle Measuring Systems (PMS) probes on Mt. Washington summit. The three probes measure cloud drop size (microns) and concentration (#/cubic cm), and compute liquid water content from this information. |
![]() |
NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory's (NOAA-ETL) Polarized Scanning Radiometer (PSR) was placed on the northwest corner of the observatory deck to scan from zenith to the western horizon to detect thermal radiative emmissions from cloud water and ice crystals. |
![]() |
Two NOAA ETL scientists operating the PSR monitoring and control system in the summit observatory weather room during MWISP. |
![]() |
NOAA ETL scientist clearing ice from the PSR. |
| NASA John H. Glenn Research Center (Cleveland, OH) Twin Otter research aircraft flying over the summit to measure cloud properties | |
![]() |
University of Nevada Desert Research Institute (DRI) scientist, Rick Purcell, adjusting a "cloud scope" placed at the summit observatory. The cloud scope images drizzle drops impacting a heated lens, from which drop diameter and mass are computed. |
![]() |
CRREL scientist making temperature measurement at summit weather shelter during rotating multicylinder run to measure cloud liquid water content and drop size spectrum. |
Eric Kelsey, Director of Research
(603) 535-2271
ekelsey@mountwashington.org