Blowing Snow at McMurdo Station, Antarctica During the AWARE Field Campaign: Surface and Ceilometer Observations
Blowing snow (BLSN) is an impactful process in cold climates, affecting regional thermodynamics, radiation properties, and the surface mass balance of snow. Though it has significant climatic impacts, the process is still poorly understood and not widely included in weather and climate models. In 20...
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ftosti:oai:osti.gov:1773732 2023-07-30T03:59:21+02:00 Blowing Snow at McMurdo Station, Antarctica During the AWARE Field Campaign: Surface and Ceilometer Observations Loeb, Nicole A. Kennedy, Aaron 2022-03-22 application/pdf http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1773732 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1773732 https://doi.org/10.1029/2020jd033935 unknown http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1773732 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1773732 https://doi.org/10.1029/2020jd033935 doi:10.1029/2020jd033935 58 GEOSCIENCES 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 2022 ftosti https://doi.org/10.1029/2020jd033935 2023-07-11T10:02:20Z Blowing snow (BLSN) is an impactful process in cold climates, affecting regional thermodynamics, radiation properties, and the surface mass balance of snow. Though it has significant climatic impacts, the process is still poorly understood and not widely included in weather and climate models. In 2016, the AWARE Field Campaign saw the deployment of a large suite of in situ and remote sensing instruments to McMurdo Station, Antarctica allowing for investigation of BLSN. A ceilometer–based BLSN detection algorithm used elsewhere in Antarctica is applied to data from AWARE, yielding a BLSN frequency of 14.1% compared to 8.2% as detected by human observers. To increase confidence in detections, the algorithm is updated to have shorter temporal averaging and to include a variety of meteorological thresholds to limit false detections due to fog. Efforts to incorporate a laser disdrometer into the algorithm were unsuccessful. An unphysical dependence of particle size distributions on wind speed is found suggesting observations are problematic at wind speeds greater than 10 m s –1 . The revised algorithm detected a BLSN frequency of 7.4%, increasing agreement with human observations and confidence that the process is actively occurring at the observation site. Furthermore, these observations are put into context of a climatology of human observations of BLSN at McMurdo station from 2002–2018. An annual average of 8.0%–14.0% is estimated, with a total annual range of 3.4%–21.3%. Regardless of whether BLSN is observed by humans or instrument, the majority of cases at this location are associated with ongoing precipitation. Other/Unknown Material Antarc* Antarctica SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) McMurdo Station ENVELOPE(166.667,166.667,-77.850,-77.850) Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 126 7 |
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Open Polar |
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SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) |
op_collection_id |
ftosti |
language |
unknown |
topic |
58 GEOSCIENCES 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES |
spellingShingle |
58 GEOSCIENCES 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Loeb, Nicole A. Kennedy, Aaron Blowing Snow at McMurdo Station, Antarctica During the AWARE Field Campaign: Surface and Ceilometer Observations |
topic_facet |
58 GEOSCIENCES 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES |
description |
Blowing snow (BLSN) is an impactful process in cold climates, affecting regional thermodynamics, radiation properties, and the surface mass balance of snow. Though it has significant climatic impacts, the process is still poorly understood and not widely included in weather and climate models. In 2016, the AWARE Field Campaign saw the deployment of a large suite of in situ and remote sensing instruments to McMurdo Station, Antarctica allowing for investigation of BLSN. A ceilometer–based BLSN detection algorithm used elsewhere in Antarctica is applied to data from AWARE, yielding a BLSN frequency of 14.1% compared to 8.2% as detected by human observers. To increase confidence in detections, the algorithm is updated to have shorter temporal averaging and to include a variety of meteorological thresholds to limit false detections due to fog. Efforts to incorporate a laser disdrometer into the algorithm were unsuccessful. An unphysical dependence of particle size distributions on wind speed is found suggesting observations are problematic at wind speeds greater than 10 m s –1 . The revised algorithm detected a BLSN frequency of 7.4%, increasing agreement with human observations and confidence that the process is actively occurring at the observation site. Furthermore, these observations are put into context of a climatology of human observations of BLSN at McMurdo station from 2002–2018. An annual average of 8.0%–14.0% is estimated, with a total annual range of 3.4%–21.3%. Regardless of whether BLSN is observed by humans or instrument, the majority of cases at this location are associated with ongoing precipitation. |
author |
Loeb, Nicole A. Kennedy, Aaron |
author_facet |
Loeb, Nicole A. Kennedy, Aaron |
author_sort |
Loeb, Nicole A. |
title |
Blowing Snow at McMurdo Station, Antarctica During the AWARE Field Campaign: Surface and Ceilometer Observations |
title_short |
Blowing Snow at McMurdo Station, Antarctica During the AWARE Field Campaign: Surface and Ceilometer Observations |
title_full |
Blowing Snow at McMurdo Station, Antarctica During the AWARE Field Campaign: Surface and Ceilometer Observations |
title_fullStr |
Blowing Snow at McMurdo Station, Antarctica During the AWARE Field Campaign: Surface and Ceilometer Observations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Blowing Snow at McMurdo Station, Antarctica During the AWARE Field Campaign: Surface and Ceilometer Observations |
title_sort |
blowing snow at mcmurdo station, antarctica during the aware field campaign: surface and ceilometer observations |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1773732 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1773732 https://doi.org/10.1029/2020jd033935 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(166.667,166.667,-77.850,-77.850) |
geographic |
McMurdo Station |
geographic_facet |
McMurdo Station |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica |
op_relation |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1773732 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1773732 https://doi.org/10.1029/2020jd033935 doi:10.1029/2020jd033935 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020jd033935 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres |
container_volume |
126 |
container_issue |
7 |
_version_ |
1772810141820780544 |