ANNUAL VARIATION OF SNOWFALL AND RADAR ECHO STRUCTURE OF SNOW CLOUDS AT SYOWA STATION, ANTARCTICA

• Main Authors: コニシ ヒロユキ, ムラヤマ ショウヘイ, カケガワ ヒデオ, ワダ マコト, カワグチ サダオ, Hiroyuki KONISHI, Shohei MURAYAMA, Hideo KAKEGAWA, Makoto WADA, Sadao KAWAGUCHI
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Osaka Kyoiku University 1992
• Subjects: Syowa Station; Antarc*; Antarctica; Polar meteorology and glaciology; Proceedings of the NIPR Symposium on Polar Meteorology and Glaciology; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=3701; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00003701/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=3701&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

Snow clouds were observed with vertical pointing radar at Syowa Station from February 1988 to December 1989. In order to find the Z-R relationship, the snowfall rate was directly measured by using an electric balance at the ground. The annual amount of snowfall was estimated to be 400mm in 1989 when we used Z=16・R^<1.3>. The amount of snowfall was 120mm in spring (from October to November), 170mm in fall (from February to April), and 70mm in winter (from June to July). It was less than 20mm in summer (from December to January). Two types of clouds were found to appear above Syowa Station : one had a low cloud top (less than 2km) and the other had a higher cloud top. The former clouds occurred predominantly in winter and the latter in spring and fall. The higher type clouds are related to the warm front of a low pressure system. The activity of lower type clouds are related to the temperature and humidity in the clouds. These conditions might be connected with the area of sea ice.