Evaluation of the CloudSat surface snowfall product over Antarctica using ground-based precipitation radars
In situ observations of snowfall over the Antarctic Ice Sheet are scarce. Currently, continent-wide assessments of snowfall are limited to information from the Cloud Profiling Radar on board the CloudSat satellite, which has not been evaluated up to now. In this study, snowfall derived from CloudSat...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2018
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018 https://doaj.org/article/9fb63e1da2a844d684e579c4ad20fcc6 |
id |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:9fb63e1da2a844d684e579c4ad20fcc6 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:9fb63e1da2a844d684e579c4ad20fcc6 2023-05-15T13:55:17+02:00 Evaluation of the CloudSat surface snowfall product over Antarctica using ground-based precipitation radars N. Souverijns A. Gossart S. Lhermitte I. V. Gorodetskaya J. Grazioli A. Berne C. Duran-Alarcon B. Boudevillain C. Genthon C. Scarchilli N. P. M. van Lipzig 2018-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018 https://doaj.org/article/9fb63e1da2a844d684e579c4ad20fcc6 EN eng Copernicus Publications https://www.the-cryosphere.net/12/3775/2018/tc-12-3775-2018.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/9fb63e1da2a844d684e579c4ad20fcc6 The Cryosphere, Vol 12, Pp 3775-3789 (2018) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018 2023-01-08T01:25:48Z In situ observations of snowfall over the Antarctic Ice Sheet are scarce. Currently, continent-wide assessments of snowfall are limited to information from the Cloud Profiling Radar on board the CloudSat satellite, which has not been evaluated up to now. In this study, snowfall derived from CloudSat is evaluated using three ground-based vertically profiling 24 GHz precipitation radars (Micro Rain Radars: MRRs). Firstly, using the MRR long-term measurement records, an assessment of the uncertainty caused by the low temporal sampling rate of CloudSat (one revisit per 2.1 to 4.5 days) is performed. The 10–90th-percentile temporal sampling uncertainty in the snowfall climatology varies between 30 % and 40 % depending on the latitudinal location and revisit time of CloudSat. Secondly, an evaluation of the snowfall climatology indicates that the CloudSat product, derived at a resolution of 1 ∘ latitude by 2 ∘ longitude, is able to accurately represent the snowfall climatology at the three MRR sites (biases < 15 %), outperforming ERA-Interim. For coarser and finer resolutions, the performance drops as a result of higher omission errors by CloudSat. Moreover, the CloudSat product does not perform well in simulating individual snowfall events. Since the difference between the MRRs and the CloudSat climatology are limited and the temporal uncertainty is lower than current Climate Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) snowfall variability, our results imply that the CloudSat product is valuable for climate model evaluation purposes. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet The Cryosphere Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Antarctic The Antarctic The Cryosphere 12 12 3775 3789 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 N. Souverijns A. Gossart S. Lhermitte I. V. Gorodetskaya J. Grazioli A. Berne C. Duran-Alarcon B. Boudevillain C. Genthon C. Scarchilli N. P. M. van Lipzig Evaluation of the CloudSat surface snowfall product over Antarctica using ground-based precipitation radars |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
In situ observations of snowfall over the Antarctic Ice Sheet are scarce. Currently, continent-wide assessments of snowfall are limited to information from the Cloud Profiling Radar on board the CloudSat satellite, which has not been evaluated up to now. In this study, snowfall derived from CloudSat is evaluated using three ground-based vertically profiling 24 GHz precipitation radars (Micro Rain Radars: MRRs). Firstly, using the MRR long-term measurement records, an assessment of the uncertainty caused by the low temporal sampling rate of CloudSat (one revisit per 2.1 to 4.5 days) is performed. The 10–90th-percentile temporal sampling uncertainty in the snowfall climatology varies between 30 % and 40 % depending on the latitudinal location and revisit time of CloudSat. Secondly, an evaluation of the snowfall climatology indicates that the CloudSat product, derived at a resolution of 1 ∘ latitude by 2 ∘ longitude, is able to accurately represent the snowfall climatology at the three MRR sites (biases < 15 %), outperforming ERA-Interim. For coarser and finer resolutions, the performance drops as a result of higher omission errors by CloudSat. Moreover, the CloudSat product does not perform well in simulating individual snowfall events. Since the difference between the MRRs and the CloudSat climatology are limited and the temporal uncertainty is lower than current Climate Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) snowfall variability, our results imply that the CloudSat product is valuable for climate model evaluation purposes. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
N. Souverijns A. Gossart S. Lhermitte I. V. Gorodetskaya J. Grazioli A. Berne C. Duran-Alarcon B. Boudevillain C. Genthon C. Scarchilli N. P. M. van Lipzig |
author_facet |
N. Souverijns A. Gossart S. Lhermitte I. V. Gorodetskaya J. Grazioli A. Berne C. Duran-Alarcon B. Boudevillain C. Genthon C. Scarchilli N. P. M. van Lipzig |
author_sort |
N. Souverijns |
title |
Evaluation of the CloudSat surface snowfall product over Antarctica using ground-based precipitation radars |
title_short |
Evaluation of the CloudSat surface snowfall product over Antarctica using ground-based precipitation radars |
title_full |
Evaluation of the CloudSat surface snowfall product over Antarctica using ground-based precipitation radars |
title_fullStr |
Evaluation of the CloudSat surface snowfall product over Antarctica using ground-based precipitation radars |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evaluation of the CloudSat surface snowfall product over Antarctica using ground-based precipitation radars |
title_sort |
evaluation of the cloudsat surface snowfall product over antarctica using ground-based precipitation radars |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018 https://doaj.org/article/9fb63e1da2a844d684e579c4ad20fcc6 |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 12, Pp 3775-3789 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://www.the-cryosphere.net/12/3775/2018/tc-12-3775-2018.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/9fb63e1da2a844d684e579c4ad20fcc6 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
3775 |
op_container_end_page |
3789 |
_version_ |
1766261668401119232 |