How does the ice sheet surface mass balance relate to snowfall? Insights from a ground-based precipitation radar in East Antarctica
Local surface mass balance (SMB) measurements are crucial for understanding changes in the total mass of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, including its contribution to sea level rise. Despite continuous attempts to decipher mechanisms controlling the local and regional SMB, a clear understanding of the sepa...
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ftunivgent:oai:archive.ugent.be:8746498 2024-02-11T09:54:42+01:00 How does the ice sheet surface mass balance relate to snowfall? Insights from a ground-based precipitation radar in East Antarctica Souverijns, Niels Gossart, Alexandra Gorodetskaya, Irina V. Lhermitte, Stef Mangold, Alexander Laffineur, Quentin Delcloo, Andy van Lipzig, Nicole P. M. 2018 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8746498 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8746498 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2017-246 eng eng https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8746498 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8746498 http://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2017-246 CRYOSPHERE ISSN: 1994-0416 ISSN: 1994-0424 Physics and Astronomy ATMOSPHERIC CLIMATE MODEL DRONNING MAUD LAND SEA-LEVEL CHANGE BLOWING-SNOW ADELIE LAND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY DRIFTING SNOW SNOWDRIFT SUBLIMATION MIZUHO STATION ACCUMULATION journalArticle info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2018 ftunivgent https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2017-246 2024-01-24T23:07:16Z Local surface mass balance (SMB) measurements are crucial for understanding changes in the total mass of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, including its contribution to sea level rise. Despite continuous attempts to decipher mechanisms controlling the local and regional SMB, a clear understanding of the separate components is still lacking, while snowfall measurements are almost absent. In this study, the different terms of the SMB are quantified at the Princess Elisabeth (PE) station in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica. Furthermore, the relationship between snowfall and accumulation at the surface is investigated. To achieve this, a unique collocated set of ground-based and in situ remote sensing instrumentation (Micro Rain Radar, ceilometer, automatic weather station, among others) was set up and operated for a time period of 37 months. Snowfall originates mainly from moist and warm air advected from lower latitudes associated with cyclone activity. However, snowfall events are not always associated with accumulation. During 38% of the observed snowfall cases, the freshly fallen snow is ablated by the wind during the course of the event. Generally, snow storms of longer duration and larger spatial extent have a higher chance of resulting in accumulation on a local scale, while shorter events usually result in ablation (on average 17 and 12 h respectively). A large part of the accumulation at the station takes place when preceding snowfall events were occurring in synoptic upstream areas. This fresh snow is easily picked up and transported in shallow drifting snow layers over tens of kilometres, even when wind speeds are relatively low (< 7 ms(-1)). Ablation events are mainly related to katabatic winds originating from the Antarctic plateau and the mountain ranges in the south. These dry winds are able to remove snow and lead to a decrease in the local SMB. This work highlights that the local SMB is strongly influenced by synoptic upstream conditions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Adelie Land Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Dronning Maud Land East Antarctica Ice Sheet Ghent University Academic Bibliography Antarctic Dronning Maud Land East Antarctica Mizuho ENVELOPE(44.317,44.317,-70.683,-70.683) Mizuho Station ENVELOPE(44.317,44.317,-70.683,-70.683) The Antarctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Ghent University Academic Bibliography |
op_collection_id |
ftunivgent |
language |
English |
topic |
Physics and Astronomy ATMOSPHERIC CLIMATE MODEL DRONNING MAUD LAND SEA-LEVEL CHANGE BLOWING-SNOW ADELIE LAND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY DRIFTING SNOW SNOWDRIFT SUBLIMATION MIZUHO STATION ACCUMULATION |
spellingShingle |
Physics and Astronomy ATMOSPHERIC CLIMATE MODEL DRONNING MAUD LAND SEA-LEVEL CHANGE BLOWING-SNOW ADELIE LAND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY DRIFTING SNOW SNOWDRIFT SUBLIMATION MIZUHO STATION ACCUMULATION Souverijns, Niels Gossart, Alexandra Gorodetskaya, Irina V. Lhermitte, Stef Mangold, Alexander Laffineur, Quentin Delcloo, Andy van Lipzig, Nicole P. M. How does the ice sheet surface mass balance relate to snowfall? Insights from a ground-based precipitation radar in East Antarctica |
topic_facet |
Physics and Astronomy ATMOSPHERIC CLIMATE MODEL DRONNING MAUD LAND SEA-LEVEL CHANGE BLOWING-SNOW ADELIE LAND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY DRIFTING SNOW SNOWDRIFT SUBLIMATION MIZUHO STATION ACCUMULATION |
description |
Local surface mass balance (SMB) measurements are crucial for understanding changes in the total mass of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, including its contribution to sea level rise. Despite continuous attempts to decipher mechanisms controlling the local and regional SMB, a clear understanding of the separate components is still lacking, while snowfall measurements are almost absent. In this study, the different terms of the SMB are quantified at the Princess Elisabeth (PE) station in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica. Furthermore, the relationship between snowfall and accumulation at the surface is investigated. To achieve this, a unique collocated set of ground-based and in situ remote sensing instrumentation (Micro Rain Radar, ceilometer, automatic weather station, among others) was set up and operated for a time period of 37 months. Snowfall originates mainly from moist and warm air advected from lower latitudes associated with cyclone activity. However, snowfall events are not always associated with accumulation. During 38% of the observed snowfall cases, the freshly fallen snow is ablated by the wind during the course of the event. Generally, snow storms of longer duration and larger spatial extent have a higher chance of resulting in accumulation on a local scale, while shorter events usually result in ablation (on average 17 and 12 h respectively). A large part of the accumulation at the station takes place when preceding snowfall events were occurring in synoptic upstream areas. This fresh snow is easily picked up and transported in shallow drifting snow layers over tens of kilometres, even when wind speeds are relatively low (< 7 ms(-1)). Ablation events are mainly related to katabatic winds originating from the Antarctic plateau and the mountain ranges in the south. These dry winds are able to remove snow and lead to a decrease in the local SMB. This work highlights that the local SMB is strongly influenced by synoptic upstream conditions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Souverijns, Niels Gossart, Alexandra Gorodetskaya, Irina V. Lhermitte, Stef Mangold, Alexander Laffineur, Quentin Delcloo, Andy van Lipzig, Nicole P. M. |
author_facet |
Souverijns, Niels Gossart, Alexandra Gorodetskaya, Irina V. Lhermitte, Stef Mangold, Alexander Laffineur, Quentin Delcloo, Andy van Lipzig, Nicole P. M. |
author_sort |
Souverijns, Niels |
title |
How does the ice sheet surface mass balance relate to snowfall? Insights from a ground-based precipitation radar in East Antarctica |
title_short |
How does the ice sheet surface mass balance relate to snowfall? Insights from a ground-based precipitation radar in East Antarctica |
title_full |
How does the ice sheet surface mass balance relate to snowfall? Insights from a ground-based precipitation radar in East Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
How does the ice sheet surface mass balance relate to snowfall? Insights from a ground-based precipitation radar in East Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
How does the ice sheet surface mass balance relate to snowfall? Insights from a ground-based precipitation radar in East Antarctica |
title_sort |
how does the ice sheet surface mass balance relate to snowfall? insights from a ground-based precipitation radar in east antarctica |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8746498 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8746498 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2017-246 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(44.317,44.317,-70.683,-70.683) ENVELOPE(44.317,44.317,-70.683,-70.683) |
geographic |
Antarctic Dronning Maud Land East Antarctica Mizuho Mizuho Station The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Dronning Maud Land East Antarctica Mizuho Mizuho Station The Antarctic |
genre |
Adelie Land Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Dronning Maud Land East Antarctica Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Adelie Land Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Dronning Maud Land East Antarctica Ice Sheet |
op_source |
CRYOSPHERE ISSN: 1994-0416 ISSN: 1994-0424 |
op_relation |
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8746498 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8746498 http://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2017-246 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2017-246 |
_version_ |
1790599427562405888 |