8D technique

8D technique

[¦āt ′dē tek‚nēk]

(meteorology)

A technique for using the radiosonde observation to determine the presence of liquid water-droplets in supercooled clouds in saturated or nearly saturated layers of air; for each reported level in the sounding, the negative value of eight times the dew-point spread (-8D) is plotted on the pseudoadiabatic chart (or equivalent chart); where the temperature sounding lies to the left of the -8D curve, liquid droplet clouds are considered to be present, and icing is possible on aircraft flying in the cloud layer. Also known as frost-point technique.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.