A 7-year record of vertical profiles of radar measurements and precipitation estimates at Dumont d'Urville, Adélie Land, East Antarctica
Studying precipitation falling over Antarctica is crucial as snowfall represents the main water input term for the polar cap. However, precipitation observations still remain scarce – and, more particularly, in the atmospheric column – due to numerous experimental issues related to the white contine...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:essd113547 2024-09-15T17:46:55+00:00 A 7-year record of vertical profiles of radar measurements and precipitation estimates at Dumont d'Urville, Adélie Land, East Antarctica Wiener, Valentin Roussel, Marie-Laure Genthon, Christophe Vignon, Étienne Grazioli, Jacopo Berne, Alexis 2024-02-07 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-821-2024 https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/16/821/2024/ eng eng doi:10.5194/essd-16-821-2024 https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/16/821/2024/ eISSN: 1866-3516 Text 2024 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-821-2024 2024-08-28T05:24:15Z Studying precipitation falling over Antarctica is crucial as snowfall represents the main water input term for the polar cap. However, precipitation observations still remain scarce – and, more particularly, in the atmospheric column – due to numerous experimental issues related to the white continent. This paper aims at helping to close this observation gap by presenting 7 years of Micro Rain Radar (Metek MRR-2) data at the Dumont d'Urville station in coastal Adélie Land, East Antarctica. Statistics are calculated on three radar variables (equivalent reflectivity, mean Doppler velocity and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)) to outline the main characteristics of the radar dataset. Seasonal and interannual variabilities are also investigated, but no significant temporal trends are detected, except for the seasonal mean Doppler velocity, which is higher in summer and lower in winter. We then use the snowfall rate ( S ) data from a collocated snow gauge to estimate the MRR precipitation profile from the radar equivalent reflectivity ( Z e ) through a locally derived Z e – S relation. We find the relation Z e =43.3 S 0.88 . The processing method used to obtain this relation, data quality and uncertainty considerations are discussed in the paper. In order to give an example of application of the dataset, a brief statistical comparison of the MRR precipitation rate along the vertical with model data from the ERA5 reanalysis and the LMDZ climate model is performed, which notably shows that models underestimate heavy precipitation events. All datasets are available on the PANGAEA database with the associated DOI: https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.962727 ( Wiener et al. , 2023 ) . Text Antarc* Antarctica East Antarctica Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Earth System Science Data 16 2 821 836 |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
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English |
description |
Studying precipitation falling over Antarctica is crucial as snowfall represents the main water input term for the polar cap. However, precipitation observations still remain scarce – and, more particularly, in the atmospheric column – due to numerous experimental issues related to the white continent. This paper aims at helping to close this observation gap by presenting 7 years of Micro Rain Radar (Metek MRR-2) data at the Dumont d'Urville station in coastal Adélie Land, East Antarctica. Statistics are calculated on three radar variables (equivalent reflectivity, mean Doppler velocity and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)) to outline the main characteristics of the radar dataset. Seasonal and interannual variabilities are also investigated, but no significant temporal trends are detected, except for the seasonal mean Doppler velocity, which is higher in summer and lower in winter. We then use the snowfall rate ( S ) data from a collocated snow gauge to estimate the MRR precipitation profile from the radar equivalent reflectivity ( Z e ) through a locally derived Z e – S relation. We find the relation Z e =43.3 S 0.88 . The processing method used to obtain this relation, data quality and uncertainty considerations are discussed in the paper. In order to give an example of application of the dataset, a brief statistical comparison of the MRR precipitation rate along the vertical with model data from the ERA5 reanalysis and the LMDZ climate model is performed, which notably shows that models underestimate heavy precipitation events. All datasets are available on the PANGAEA database with the associated DOI: https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.962727 ( Wiener et al. , 2023 ) . |
format |
Text |
author |
Wiener, Valentin Roussel, Marie-Laure Genthon, Christophe Vignon, Étienne Grazioli, Jacopo Berne, Alexis |
spellingShingle |
Wiener, Valentin Roussel, Marie-Laure Genthon, Christophe Vignon, Étienne Grazioli, Jacopo Berne, Alexis A 7-year record of vertical profiles of radar measurements and precipitation estimates at Dumont d'Urville, Adélie Land, East Antarctica |
author_facet |
Wiener, Valentin Roussel, Marie-Laure Genthon, Christophe Vignon, Étienne Grazioli, Jacopo Berne, Alexis |
author_sort |
Wiener, Valentin |
title |
A 7-year record of vertical profiles of radar measurements and precipitation estimates at Dumont d'Urville, Adélie Land, East Antarctica |
title_short |
A 7-year record of vertical profiles of radar measurements and precipitation estimates at Dumont d'Urville, Adélie Land, East Antarctica |
title_full |
A 7-year record of vertical profiles of radar measurements and precipitation estimates at Dumont d'Urville, Adélie Land, East Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
A 7-year record of vertical profiles of radar measurements and precipitation estimates at Dumont d'Urville, Adélie Land, East Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
A 7-year record of vertical profiles of radar measurements and precipitation estimates at Dumont d'Urville, Adélie Land, East Antarctica |
title_sort |
7-year record of vertical profiles of radar measurements and precipitation estimates at dumont d'urville, adélie land, east antarctica |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-821-2024 https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/16/821/2024/ |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica East Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica East Antarctica |
op_source |
eISSN: 1866-3516 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/essd-16-821-2024 https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/16/821/2024/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-821-2024 |
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Earth System Science Data |
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16 |
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2 |
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821 |
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836 |
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1810495352916148224 |