Arctic Snowfall from CloudSat Observations and Reanalyses
International audience Abstract While snowfall makes a major contribution to the hydrological cycle in the Arctic, state-of-the-art climatologies still significantly disagree. We present a satellite-based characterization of snowfall in the Arctic using CloudSat observations, and compare it with var...
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Online Access: | https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03407644 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0105.1 |
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ftccsdartic:oai:HAL:hal-03407644v1 2023-05-15T13:09:47+02:00 Arctic Snowfall from CloudSat Observations and Reanalyses Edel, L. Claud, C. GENTHON, C. Palerme, C. Wood, N. L’Ecuyer, T. Bromwich, D. Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris) Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris) Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL) 2020-03-15 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03407644 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0105.1 en eng HAL CCSD American Meteorological Society info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0105.1 hal-03407644 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03407644 doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0105.1 ISSN: 0894-8755 EISSN: 1520-0442 Journal of Climate https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03407644 Journal of Climate, American Meteorological Society, 2020, 33 (6), pp.2093-2109. ⟨10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0105.1⟩ [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] [SDE]Environmental Sciences info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2020 ftccsdartic https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0105.1 2021-11-20T23:34:23Z International audience Abstract While snowfall makes a major contribution to the hydrological cycle in the Arctic, state-of-the-art climatologies still significantly disagree. We present a satellite-based characterization of snowfall in the Arctic using CloudSat observations, and compare it with various other climatologies. First, we examine the frequency and phase of precipitation as well as the snowfall rates from CloudSat over 2007–10. Frequency of solid precipitation is higher than 70% over the Arctic Ocean and 95% over Greenland, while mixed precipitation occurs mainly over North Atlantic (50%) and liquid precipitation over land south of 70°N (40%). Intense mean snowfall rates are located over Greenland, the Barents Sea, and the Alaska range (>500 mm yr −1 ), and maxima are located over the southeast coast of Greenland (up to 2000 mm yr −1 ). Then we compare snowfall rates with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) interim reanalysis (ERA-Interim, herein ERA-I) and Arctic System Reanalysis (ASR). Similar general geographical patterns are observed in all datasets, such as the high snowfall rates along the North Atlantic storm track. Yet, there are significant mean snowfall rate differences over the Arctic between 58° and 82°N between ERA-I (153 mm yr −1 ), ASR version 1 (206 mm yr −1 ), ASR version 2 (174 mm yr −1 ), and CloudSat (183 mm yr −1 ). Snowfall rates and differences are larger over Greenland. Phase attribution is likely to be a significant source of snowfall rate differences, especially regarding ERA-I underestimation. In spite of its nadir-viewing limitations, CloudSat is an essential source of information to characterize snowfall in the Arctic. Article in Journal/Newspaper alaska range Arctic Arctic Ocean Barents Sea Greenland North Atlantic Alaska Archive ouverte HAL (Hyper Article en Ligne, CCSD - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) Arctic Arctic Ocean Barents Sea Greenland Journal of Climate 33 6 2093 2109 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Archive ouverte HAL (Hyper Article en Ligne, CCSD - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) |
op_collection_id |
ftccsdartic |
language |
English |
topic |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] [SDE]Environmental Sciences |
spellingShingle |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] [SDE]Environmental Sciences Edel, L. Claud, C. GENTHON, C. Palerme, C. Wood, N. L’Ecuyer, T. Bromwich, D. Arctic Snowfall from CloudSat Observations and Reanalyses |
topic_facet |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] [SDE]Environmental Sciences |
description |
International audience Abstract While snowfall makes a major contribution to the hydrological cycle in the Arctic, state-of-the-art climatologies still significantly disagree. We present a satellite-based characterization of snowfall in the Arctic using CloudSat observations, and compare it with various other climatologies. First, we examine the frequency and phase of precipitation as well as the snowfall rates from CloudSat over 2007–10. Frequency of solid precipitation is higher than 70% over the Arctic Ocean and 95% over Greenland, while mixed precipitation occurs mainly over North Atlantic (50%) and liquid precipitation over land south of 70°N (40%). Intense mean snowfall rates are located over Greenland, the Barents Sea, and the Alaska range (>500 mm yr −1 ), and maxima are located over the southeast coast of Greenland (up to 2000 mm yr −1 ). Then we compare snowfall rates with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) interim reanalysis (ERA-Interim, herein ERA-I) and Arctic System Reanalysis (ASR). Similar general geographical patterns are observed in all datasets, such as the high snowfall rates along the North Atlantic storm track. Yet, there are significant mean snowfall rate differences over the Arctic between 58° and 82°N between ERA-I (153 mm yr −1 ), ASR version 1 (206 mm yr −1 ), ASR version 2 (174 mm yr −1 ), and CloudSat (183 mm yr −1 ). Snowfall rates and differences are larger over Greenland. Phase attribution is likely to be a significant source of snowfall rate differences, especially regarding ERA-I underestimation. In spite of its nadir-viewing limitations, CloudSat is an essential source of information to characterize snowfall in the Arctic. |
author2 |
Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris) Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris) Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Edel, L. Claud, C. GENTHON, C. Palerme, C. Wood, N. L’Ecuyer, T. Bromwich, D. |
author_facet |
Edel, L. Claud, C. GENTHON, C. Palerme, C. Wood, N. L’Ecuyer, T. Bromwich, D. |
author_sort |
Edel, L. |
title |
Arctic Snowfall from CloudSat Observations and Reanalyses |
title_short |
Arctic Snowfall from CloudSat Observations and Reanalyses |
title_full |
Arctic Snowfall from CloudSat Observations and Reanalyses |
title_fullStr |
Arctic Snowfall from CloudSat Observations and Reanalyses |
title_full_unstemmed |
Arctic Snowfall from CloudSat Observations and Reanalyses |
title_sort |
arctic snowfall from cloudsat observations and reanalyses |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03407644 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0105.1 |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Barents Sea Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Barents Sea Greenland |
genre |
alaska range Arctic Arctic Ocean Barents Sea Greenland North Atlantic Alaska |
genre_facet |
alaska range Arctic Arctic Ocean Barents Sea Greenland North Atlantic Alaska |
op_source |
ISSN: 0894-8755 EISSN: 1520-0442 Journal of Climate https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03407644 Journal of Climate, American Meteorological Society, 2020, 33 (6), pp.2093-2109. ⟨10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0105.1⟩ |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0105.1 hal-03407644 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03407644 doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0105.1 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0105.1 |
container_title |
Journal of Climate |
container_volume |
33 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
2093 |
op_container_end_page |
2109 |
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1766198989295714304 |