Local spatial variability of summer precipitation in the Sør Rondane Mountains, Antarctica ...

• Main Authors: Ferrone, Alfonso, Vignon, Etienne, Zonato, Andrea, Berne, Alexis
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences 2023
• Subjects: Sør Rondane Mountains; Sør-Rondane; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice cap
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.57757/iugg23-2884; https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5019016

<!--!introduction!--> Although crucial for the ice cap surface mass balance, precipitation remains poorly characterized over Antarctica, even less so in complex terrain influencing the local circulation. In this study, one summer month of measurements collected by a transect of three vertically-pointing radars (MRR-PRO) has been used to investigate the spatial variability of precipitation in complex terrain in the vicinity of the Belgian base Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. The occurrence of surface precipitation and virga at the three MRR-PRO locations has been studied, revealing that virgae represent a lower fraction of the total precipitation at higher altitudes. The analysis of the reflectivity profiles suggests that sublimation is predominant below 3.5 km above mean sea level, regardless of the altitude of the considered site. High-resolution simulations from the WRF model (forced by ERA5 data) show lower values of relative humidity with respect to ice in the same section of the profile. The depth ... : The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023) ...