Atmospheric icing

Atmospheric icing occurs on aircraft, towers, wind turbines, boats, oil rigs, and trees.

It forms rapidly from small supercooled water droplets and is the most reported icing type.

Colder temperatures, lower liquid water content, and small droplets favors the forming of rime icing.

However, this is counteracted by airframe skin surface at higher airspeed, and as a result, structural icing is minimal when speed is above 575 kn (1,100 km/h; 660 mph).

[6] To ensure flight safety, on-board ice protection systems have been developed on aircraft intended to fly through these conditions.