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...
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Copernicus GmbH
2018
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12079/4787 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018 https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85057741258&doi=10.5194%2ftc-12-3775-2018&partnerID=40&md5=e4a223b24e196276e625422b6f45797a |
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ftenea:oai:iris.enea.it:20.500.12079/4787 2024-02-11T09:58:08+01:00 Evaluation of the CloudSat surface snowfall product over Antarctica using ground-based precipitation radars Scarchilli, C. Scarchilli, C. 2018 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12079/4787 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018 https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85057741258&doi=10.5194%2ftc-12-3775-2018&partnerID=40&md5=e4a223b24e196276e625422b6f45797a en eng Copernicus GmbH volume:12 issue:12 numberofpages:3775 - 3789 journal:THE CRYOSPHERE http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12079/4787 doi:10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/scopus/Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85057741258 https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85057741258&doi=10.5194%2ftc-12-3775-2018&partnerID=40&md5=e4a223b24e196276e625422b6f45797a info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2018 ftenea https://doi.org/20.500.12079/478710.5194/tc-12-3775-2018 2024-01-23T23:16:51Z 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. © 2018 Author(s). Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet ENEA-IRIS Open Archive (Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l'energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile) Antarctic The Antarctic The Cryosphere 12 12 3775 3789 |
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Open Polar |
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ENEA-IRIS Open Archive (Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l'energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile) |
op_collection_id |
ftenea |
language |
English |
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. © 2018 Author(s). |
author2 |
Scarchilli, C. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Scarchilli, C. |
spellingShingle |
Scarchilli, C. Evaluation of the CloudSat surface snowfall product over Antarctica using ground-based precipitation radars |
author_facet |
Scarchilli, C. |
author_sort |
Scarchilli, C. |
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 GmbH |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12079/4787 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018 https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85057741258&doi=10.5194%2ftc-12-3775-2018&partnerID=40&md5=e4a223b24e196276e625422b6f45797a |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
volume:12 issue:12 numberofpages:3775 - 3789 journal:THE CRYOSPHERE http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12079/4787 doi:10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/scopus/Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85057741258 https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85057741258&doi=10.5194%2ftc-12-3775-2018&partnerID=40&md5=e4a223b24e196276e625422b6f45797a |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/20.500.12079/478710.5194/tc-12-3775-2018 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
3775 |
op_container_end_page |
3789 |
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1790593717305868288 |