Will weather radar show snow covered ice terrain in the Artic?

[Centaurus]

Question occurs in another forum if the airborne weather avoidance radar in the Air New Zealand DC10 that flew into Mt Erebus in the Antartic, would have displayed the volcanic terrain which had thick snow on top of a thick covering of ice. Wet ice reflects radar well but in the dry atmosphere of the Antartic the radar may be absorbed by the ice covered terrain and thus no radar picture. Comments appreciated.

[galaxy flyer]

I suspect Mt Erebus would have shown on the wx radar. I get good
'paints" on Labrador and Greenland on winter NAT crossings, admittedly not exactly the same terrain.

GF

[Centaurus]

I get good
'paints" on Labrador and Greenland on winter NAT crossings

Interesting point there - although that is high altitude cruise. . I wonder if the paint would show if the aircraft was at low level heading directly towards the ice shelf as was the Air New Zealand DC10. Thanks for your reply all the same.

[Northbeach]

We have a 4,392 meter mountain nearby. The top is almost always covered in ice and snow. This mountain always shows up on radar. As does a different mountain at 6,194 meters that is almost continuously locked in ice, snow and arctic conditions. Although I have no Antarctic experience with radar, I would be shocked if there is something in that environment that would mask solid rock/ice/snow from radar. Before I had EGPWS (enhanced ground proximity warning system) available I used the radar in IMC during approach or in the vicinity of terrain to avoid running into hard stationary things in front of me I couldn’t see-but the radar does.

I had a colleague killed in a CFIT accident. He was the PIC of a commuter flight; the aircraft had a functioning radar but no GPWS. He flew the plane into a ridge taking himself, his FO and 19 passengers out. Radar was available but not used, VFR flight into IMC, darkness, violation of SOPs and regulations…….repeat of so many other accidents horribly tragic and senseless……… 21 dead people and a destroyed turboprob.

[galaxy flyer]

I can add that Mt Rainier also shows up well. The radar energy won't paint the snow/ice on the mountain well (snow/ice are poor reflectors of X-band energy), but the energy will pass thru the snow/ice and reflect off rock very well.

GF

[flyboy007]

Other aeroplanes paint on the weather radar in the cruise, and they're dry, so I would have to assume that mountains/topography would paint regardless of atmospheric conditions.