Ice fog monitoring near Fairbanks, AK

Abstract

Ice fog events, which occur during the Arctic winter, result in greatly decreased visibility and can lead to an increase of ice on roadways, aircraft, and airfields. The Fairbanks area is known for ice fog conditions, and previous studies have shown these events to be associated with moisture released from local power generation. Despite the identified originating mechanism of ice fog, there remains a need to quantify the environmental conditions controlling its origination, intensity, and spatial extent. This investigation focused on developing innovative methods of identifying and characterizing the environmental conditions that lead to ice fog formation near Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Preliminary data collected from December 2019 to March 2020 suggest that ice fog events occurred with temperatures below −34°C, up to 74% of the time ice fog emanated from the power generation facility, and at least 95% of ice particles during ice fog events were solid droxtals with diameters ranging from 7 to 50 μm. This report documents the need for frequent and detailed observations of the meteorological conditions in combination with photographic and ice particle observations. Datasets from these observations capture the environmental complexity and the impacts from energy generation in extremely cold weather conditions.