How much snow falls on the Antarctic ice sheet?
International audience Climate models predict Antarctic precipitation to increase during the 21st century, but their present day Antarctic precipitation differs. A model-independent climatology of the Antarctic precipitation characteristics, such as snowfall rates and frequency, is needed to assess...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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HAL CCSD
2014
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Online Access: | https://hal.science/hal-04114615 https://hal.science/hal-04114615/document https://hal.science/hal-04114615/file/tc-8-1577-2014.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1577-2014 |
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Open Polar |
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Institut national des sciences de l'Univers: HAL-INSU |
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English |
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[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] |
spellingShingle |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] Palerme, C. Kay, J. E. Genthon, C. L'Ecuyer, T. Wood, N. B. Claud, C. How much snow falls on the Antarctic ice sheet? |
topic_facet |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] |
description |
International audience Climate models predict Antarctic precipitation to increase during the 21st century, but their present day Antarctic precipitation differs. A model-independent climatology of the Antarctic precipitation characteristics, such as snowfall rates and frequency, is needed to assess the models, but it is not yet available. Satellite observations of precipitation by active sensors has been possible in the polar regions since the launch of CloudSat in 2006. Here, we use two CloudSat products to generate the first multi-year, model-independent climatology of Antarctic precipitation. The first product is used to determine the frequency and the phase of precipitation, while the second product is used to assess the snowfall rate. The mean snowfall rate from August 2006 to April 2011 is 171 mm year -1 over the Antarctic ice sheet, north of 82° S. While uncertainties on individual precipitation retrievals from CloudSat data are potentially large, the mean uncertainty should be much smaller, but cannot be easily estimated. There are no in situ measurements of Antarctic precipitation to directly assess the new climatology. However, distributions of both precipitation occurrences and rates generally agree with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA-Interim data set, the production of which is constrained by various in situ and satellite observations, but does not use any data from CloudSat. The new data set thus offers unprecedented capability to quantitatively assess Antarctic precipitation statistics and rates in climate models. |
author2 |
Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE) Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG) Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD) Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Palerme, C. Kay, J. E. Genthon, C. L'Ecuyer, T. Wood, N. B. Claud, C. |
author_facet |
Palerme, C. Kay, J. E. Genthon, C. L'Ecuyer, T. Wood, N. B. Claud, C. |
author_sort |
Palerme, C. |
title |
How much snow falls on the Antarctic ice sheet? |
title_short |
How much snow falls on the Antarctic ice sheet? |
title_full |
How much snow falls on the Antarctic ice sheet? |
title_fullStr |
How much snow falls on the Antarctic ice sheet? |
title_full_unstemmed |
How much snow falls on the Antarctic ice sheet? |
title_sort |
how much snow falls on the antarctic ice sheet? |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-04114615 https://hal.science/hal-04114615/document https://hal.science/hal-04114615/file/tc-8-1577-2014.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1577-2014 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet The Cryosphere |
op_source |
ISSN: 1994-0424 EISSN: 1994-0416 The Cryosphere https://hal.science/hal-04114615 The Cryosphere, 2014, 8, pp.1577-1587. ⟨10.5194/tc-8-1577-2014⟩ |
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info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.5194/tc-8-1577-2014 hal-04114615 https://hal.science/hal-04114615 https://hal.science/hal-04114615/document https://hal.science/hal-04114615/file/tc-8-1577-2014.pdf BIBCODE: 2014TCry.8.1577P doi:10.5194/tc-8-1577-2014 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1577-2014 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
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8 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
1577 |
op_container_end_page |
1587 |
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1797586201607143424 |
spelling |
ftinsu:oai:HAL:hal-04114615v1 2024-04-28T07:57:01+00:00 How much snow falls on the Antarctic ice sheet? Palerme, C. Kay, J. E. Genthon, C. L'Ecuyer, T. Wood, N. B. Claud, C. Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE) Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG) Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD) Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL) 2014 https://hal.science/hal-04114615 https://hal.science/hal-04114615/document https://hal.science/hal-04114615/file/tc-8-1577-2014.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1577-2014 en eng HAL CCSD Copernicus info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.5194/tc-8-1577-2014 hal-04114615 https://hal.science/hal-04114615 https://hal.science/hal-04114615/document https://hal.science/hal-04114615/file/tc-8-1577-2014.pdf BIBCODE: 2014TCry.8.1577P doi:10.5194/tc-8-1577-2014 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess ISSN: 1994-0424 EISSN: 1994-0416 The Cryosphere https://hal.science/hal-04114615 The Cryosphere, 2014, 8, pp.1577-1587. ⟨10.5194/tc-8-1577-2014⟩ [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2014 ftinsu https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1577-2014 2024-04-05T00:29:02Z International audience Climate models predict Antarctic precipitation to increase during the 21st century, but their present day Antarctic precipitation differs. A model-independent climatology of the Antarctic precipitation characteristics, such as snowfall rates and frequency, is needed to assess the models, but it is not yet available. Satellite observations of precipitation by active sensors has been possible in the polar regions since the launch of CloudSat in 2006. Here, we use two CloudSat products to generate the first multi-year, model-independent climatology of Antarctic precipitation. The first product is used to determine the frequency and the phase of precipitation, while the second product is used to assess the snowfall rate. The mean snowfall rate from August 2006 to April 2011 is 171 mm year -1 over the Antarctic ice sheet, north of 82° S. While uncertainties on individual precipitation retrievals from CloudSat data are potentially large, the mean uncertainty should be much smaller, but cannot be easily estimated. There are no in situ measurements of Antarctic precipitation to directly assess the new climatology. However, distributions of both precipitation occurrences and rates generally agree with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA-Interim data set, the production of which is constrained by various in situ and satellite observations, but does not use any data from CloudSat. The new data set thus offers unprecedented capability to quantitatively assess Antarctic precipitation statistics and rates in climate models. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet The Cryosphere Institut national des sciences de l'Univers: HAL-INSU The Cryosphere 8 4 1577 1587 |