Evaluation of Antarctic snowfall in global meteorological reanalyses

• Published in: Atmospheric Research
• Main Authors: Palerme, Cyril, Claud, Chantal, Dufour, Ambroise, Genthon, Christophe, Wood, Norman B., L'Ecuyer, Tristan
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG ), 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 Grenoble Alpes 2016-2019 (UGA 2016-2019 )-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-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 Grenoble Alpes 2016-2019 (UGA 2016-2019 ), 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), Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-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
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2017
• Subjects: Precipitation; Antarctica; Meteorological analyses; CloudSat; [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]; [SDU.STU.ME]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Meteorology; Antarc*; Antarctic
• Online Access: https://insu.hal.science/insu-03727059; https://insu.hal.science/insu-03727059/document; https://insu.hal.science/insu-03727059/file/1-s2.0-S0169809516303611-main.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2017.02.015

International audience Recent precipitation observations provided by CloudSat are used to evaluate the ability of various meteorological analyses and reanalyses to reproduce Antarctic snowfall. The performance of the ECMWF Interim Re-Analysis (ERA Interim), the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR), the Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA55), the Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Application (MERRA), and the Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Application 2 (MERRA-2), as well as ECMWF operational analyses are compared over the 2007-2010 period. The mean snowfall rate over Antarctica north of 82 °S simulated by the reanalyses between 2007 and 2010 ranges from 165 to 225 mm per year, while CloudSat observations indicate a value of 172 mm per year. ERA Interim produces the closest match to the observed snowfall rate, but all the reanalyses reproduce well the seasonal and interannual variability of Antarctic snowfall reported in CloudSat observations.