Ice Pie Models May 2026

. While they sound like desserts, they are actually analytical tools designed to help teams decide where to focus their energy. 1. The ICE Scoring Model

Nonetheless, ongoing satellite missions (like ESA’s CryoSat-2 and NASA’s ICESat-2) are now providing enough thickness and freeboard data to validate and refine these models at unprecedented scales. ice pie models

River Ice Jams:

When spring thaw breaks river ice, large pies can pile up at bridges or narrows, causing devastating floods. Engineers use ice pie models to predict jam locations and design mitigation strategies. ( H_0 ) = center thickness ( R

( H_0 ) = center thickness
( R ) = radius of the ice cap
The shape is not a dome but a parabolic curve, steeper near the edges than at the center.

Without a framework like ICE, prioritization often devolves into the "HiPPO" effect—the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion. When decisions are made based on who speaks the loudest or has the most authority, organizations risk bias and groupthink. Without a framework like ICE

Given modern computing power, why still teach or use ice pie models?

So the next time you slice into a frozen dessert, spare a thought for the elegant mathematics of the ice pie model—quietly shaping our understanding of frozen worlds, both on Earth and beyond.