Evaluation of CloudSat's Cloud-Profiling Radar for Mapping Snowfall Rates Across the Greenland Ice Sheet
peer reviewed The Greenland Ice Sheet is now the single largest cryospheric contributor to global sea-level rise yet uncertainty remains about its future contribution due to complex interactions between increasing snowfall and surface melt. Reducing uncertainty in future snowfall predictions require...
Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres |
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Blackwell Publishing
2020
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Online Access: | https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/254922 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031411 |
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ftorbi:oai:orbi.ulg.ac.be:2268/254922 2024-04-21T08:03:03+00:00 Evaluation of CloudSat's Cloud-Profiling Radar for Mapping Snowfall Rates Across the Greenland Ice Sheet Ryan, J. C. Smith, L. C. Wu, M. Cooley, S. W. Miège, C. Montgomery, L. N. Koenig, L. S. Fettweis, Xavier Noël, Brice van den Broeke, M. R. 2020-01 https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/254922 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031411 en eng Blackwell Publishing https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019JD031411 urn:issn:2169-897X urn:issn:2169-8996 https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/254922 info:hdl:2268/254922 doi:10.1029/2019JD031411 scopus-id:2-s2.0-85081070665 restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres, 125 (4) (2020-01) CloudSat Greenland Ice Sheet Arctic Greenland Physical chemical mathematical & earth Sciences Earth sciences & physical geography Physique chimie mathématiques & sciences de la terre Sciences de la terre & géographie physique journal article http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 info:eu-repo/semantics/article peer reviewed 2020 ftorbi https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031411 2024-03-27T14:57:58Z peer reviewed The Greenland Ice Sheet is now the single largest cryospheric contributor to global sea-level rise yet uncertainty remains about its future contribution due to complex interactions between increasing snowfall and surface melt. Reducing uncertainty in future snowfall predictions requires sophisticated, physically based climate models evaluated with present-day observations. The accuracy of modeled snowfall rates, however, has yet to be systematically assessed because observations are sparse. Here, we produce high spatial resolution (15 km) snowfall climatologies (2006–2016) derived from CloudSat's 2C-SNOW-PROFILE product to evaluate climate model simulations of snowfall across the Greenland Ice Sheet. In comparison to accumulation datasets acquired from ice cores and airborne accumulation radar, we find that our CloudSat climatologies capture broad spatial patterns of snowfall in both the accumulation and ablation zones. By comparing our CloudSat snowfall climatologies with the Regional Atmospheric Climate Model Version 2.3p2 (RACMO2.3p2), Modèle Atmosphérique Régional 3.9 (MAR3.9), ERA5, and Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1), we demonstrate that climate models likely overestimate snowfall rates at the margins of the ice sheet, particularly in South, Southeast, and Northwest Greenland during autumn and winter. Despite this overestimation, there are few areas of the ice sheet where the models and CloudSat substantially disagree about the spatial pattern and seasonality of snowfall rates. We conclude that a combination of CloudSat snowfall observations and the latest generation of climate models has the potential to improve understanding of how snowfall rates respond to increasing air temperatures, thereby constraining one of the largest sources of uncertainty in Greenland's future contribution to global sea levels. © 2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Ice Sheet University of Liège: ORBi (Open Repository and Bibliography) Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 125 4 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Liège: ORBi (Open Repository and Bibliography) |
op_collection_id |
ftorbi |
language |
English |
topic |
CloudSat Greenland Ice Sheet Arctic Greenland Physical chemical mathematical & earth Sciences Earth sciences & physical geography Physique chimie mathématiques & sciences de la terre Sciences de la terre & géographie physique |
spellingShingle |
CloudSat Greenland Ice Sheet Arctic Greenland Physical chemical mathematical & earth Sciences Earth sciences & physical geography Physique chimie mathématiques & sciences de la terre Sciences de la terre & géographie physique Ryan, J. C. Smith, L. C. Wu, M. Cooley, S. W. Miège, C. Montgomery, L. N. Koenig, L. S. Fettweis, Xavier Noël, Brice van den Broeke, M. R. Evaluation of CloudSat's Cloud-Profiling Radar for Mapping Snowfall Rates Across the Greenland Ice Sheet |
topic_facet |
CloudSat Greenland Ice Sheet Arctic Greenland Physical chemical mathematical & earth Sciences Earth sciences & physical geography Physique chimie mathématiques & sciences de la terre Sciences de la terre & géographie physique |
description |
peer reviewed The Greenland Ice Sheet is now the single largest cryospheric contributor to global sea-level rise yet uncertainty remains about its future contribution due to complex interactions between increasing snowfall and surface melt. Reducing uncertainty in future snowfall predictions requires sophisticated, physically based climate models evaluated with present-day observations. The accuracy of modeled snowfall rates, however, has yet to be systematically assessed because observations are sparse. Here, we produce high spatial resolution (15 km) snowfall climatologies (2006–2016) derived from CloudSat's 2C-SNOW-PROFILE product to evaluate climate model simulations of snowfall across the Greenland Ice Sheet. In comparison to accumulation datasets acquired from ice cores and airborne accumulation radar, we find that our CloudSat climatologies capture broad spatial patterns of snowfall in both the accumulation and ablation zones. By comparing our CloudSat snowfall climatologies with the Regional Atmospheric Climate Model Version 2.3p2 (RACMO2.3p2), Modèle Atmosphérique Régional 3.9 (MAR3.9), ERA5, and Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1), we demonstrate that climate models likely overestimate snowfall rates at the margins of the ice sheet, particularly in South, Southeast, and Northwest Greenland during autumn and winter. Despite this overestimation, there are few areas of the ice sheet where the models and CloudSat substantially disagree about the spatial pattern and seasonality of snowfall rates. We conclude that a combination of CloudSat snowfall observations and the latest generation of climate models has the potential to improve understanding of how snowfall rates respond to increasing air temperatures, thereby constraining one of the largest sources of uncertainty in Greenland's future contribution to global sea levels. © 2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ryan, J. C. Smith, L. C. Wu, M. Cooley, S. W. Miège, C. Montgomery, L. N. Koenig, L. S. Fettweis, Xavier Noël, Brice van den Broeke, M. R. |
author_facet |
Ryan, J. C. Smith, L. C. Wu, M. Cooley, S. W. Miège, C. Montgomery, L. N. Koenig, L. S. Fettweis, Xavier Noël, Brice van den Broeke, M. R. |
author_sort |
Ryan, J. C. |
title |
Evaluation of CloudSat's Cloud-Profiling Radar for Mapping Snowfall Rates Across the Greenland Ice Sheet |
title_short |
Evaluation of CloudSat's Cloud-Profiling Radar for Mapping Snowfall Rates Across the Greenland Ice Sheet |
title_full |
Evaluation of CloudSat's Cloud-Profiling Radar for Mapping Snowfall Rates Across the Greenland Ice Sheet |
title_fullStr |
Evaluation of CloudSat's Cloud-Profiling Radar for Mapping Snowfall Rates Across the Greenland Ice Sheet |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evaluation of CloudSat's Cloud-Profiling Radar for Mapping Snowfall Rates Across the Greenland Ice Sheet |
title_sort |
evaluation of cloudsat's cloud-profiling radar for mapping snowfall rates across the greenland ice sheet |
publisher |
Blackwell Publishing |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/254922 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031411 |
genre |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres, 125 (4) (2020-01) |
op_relation |
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019JD031411 urn:issn:2169-897X urn:issn:2169-8996 https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/254922 info:hdl:2268/254922 doi:10.1029/2019JD031411 scopus-id:2-s2.0-85081070665 |
op_rights |
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031411 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres |
container_volume |
125 |
container_issue |
4 |
_version_ |
1796943050554998784 |