MarSpray LiDAR (MSL) for the comprehensive measurement of Sea Spray for Improving the Prediction of Marine Icing in Cold Conditions

Abstract

Marine icing is a very complicated phenomenon, and its prediction, evaluation, and estimation involve many uncertainties. Commonly, the most severe ice accretion is caused by sea spray. A substantial amount of study is present on sea spray ice accretion about modelling and numerical simulations with certain assumptions and not based on comprehensive real-time data. The past techniques used to measure sea spray couldn’t provide information such as its complete droplets distribution, velocity, and concentration. The high temporal and spatial resolution measurement ability of the LiDAR technique has proven to be useful for studying pesticide spray drift in the agricultural domain. Due to its similar properties to sea spray, we proposed to use this remote measurement technique well-established in other disciplines in a new field: the study of sea spray icing.

To recognize this potential, a novel LiDAR prototype named MarSpray LiDAR (MSL) is designed, built, and tested. MSL is a mono-static multi-axial LiDAR equipment specifically designed for short-range spray analysis and measurement. With certain future modifications, this equipment can be made suitable for shipborne use to retrieve marine spray properties that the past studies failed. These measurements can be applied for developing a more precise model for improving marine icing prediction in cold conditions.