Validation of precipitation phase estimates from CloudSat-CPR across Canada
Snow is an important component of the global climate system with significant impacts on local weather, fresh water resources, and energy balance in high latitude cold countries. Therefore precise snowfall monitoring is essential for cold countries such as Canada. Apart from the sampling issues relat...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Master Thesis |
Language: | English |
Published: |
University of Waterloo
2020
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10012/15535 |
id |
ftunivwaterloo:oai:uwspace.uwaterloo.ca:10012/15535 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivwaterloo:oai:uwspace.uwaterloo.ca:10012/15535 2023-05-15T15:01:48+02:00 Validation of precipitation phase estimates from CloudSat-CPR across Canada Kodamana, Rithwik 2020-01-20 http://hdl.handle.net/10012/15535 en eng University of Waterloo http://hdl.handle.net/10012/15535 remote sensing CloudSat Arctic validation Canada snow Snow--Canada Northern--Remote sensing Master Thesis 2020 ftunivwaterloo 2022-06-18T23:02:43Z Snow is an important component of the global climate system with significant impacts on local weather, fresh water resources, and energy balance in high latitude cold countries. Therefore precise snowfall monitoring is essential for cold countries such as Canada. Apart from the sampling issues related to access and climate in cold regions, a further significant issue that impacts snowfall monitoring is the accurate detection of precipitation phase. The CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) instrument is highly useful because it provides an estimate of precipitation phase along with retrievals of solid precipitation intensity. Furthermore, the sun-synchronous orbit of CloudSat allows it to have enhanced coverage over the Canadian Arctic. In this study, we validate the precipitation phase retrievals from CloudSat using the present weather information recorded on the ground by human observers (ECCC hourly weather data) from 27 stations across Canada and Precipitation Occurrence Sensor System (POSS) radar at Eureka, both maintained by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). Probability of Detection (POD), defined as the percentage of coincident CloudSat and ground observations that agree on the precipitation phase (solid, liquid or no precipitation), is used as the metric for validation. Mean POD values of CloudSat in classifying solid, liquid and non-precipitating weather at the 27 stations are 80.8%±1.5, 83.2%±1.9 and 69.8%±0.8 respectively. Binning the collocated CloudSat-ECCC hourly weather observations across Canada by the snowfall rate information available from CloudSat, we find that the accuracy of CloudSat in classifying precipitation phase increases with snowfall rate with a maximum accuracy of 85% for snowfall rates >1 mm/hr. We find that the POD varies with precipitation type, and is inversely proportional to cloud cover, with the lowest POD obtained under the heaviest cloud cover. Also, using binomial and multinomial logistic regression analysis of different physical factors, it is seen that POD ... Master Thesis Arctic Climate change University of Waterloo, Canada: Institutional Repository Arctic Canada Eureka ENVELOPE(-85.940,-85.940,79.990,79.990) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Waterloo, Canada: Institutional Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivwaterloo |
language |
English |
topic |
remote sensing CloudSat Arctic validation Canada snow Snow--Canada Northern--Remote sensing |
spellingShingle |
remote sensing CloudSat Arctic validation Canada snow Snow--Canada Northern--Remote sensing Kodamana, Rithwik Validation of precipitation phase estimates from CloudSat-CPR across Canada |
topic_facet |
remote sensing CloudSat Arctic validation Canada snow Snow--Canada Northern--Remote sensing |
description |
Snow is an important component of the global climate system with significant impacts on local weather, fresh water resources, and energy balance in high latitude cold countries. Therefore precise snowfall monitoring is essential for cold countries such as Canada. Apart from the sampling issues related to access and climate in cold regions, a further significant issue that impacts snowfall monitoring is the accurate detection of precipitation phase. The CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) instrument is highly useful because it provides an estimate of precipitation phase along with retrievals of solid precipitation intensity. Furthermore, the sun-synchronous orbit of CloudSat allows it to have enhanced coverage over the Canadian Arctic. In this study, we validate the precipitation phase retrievals from CloudSat using the present weather information recorded on the ground by human observers (ECCC hourly weather data) from 27 stations across Canada and Precipitation Occurrence Sensor System (POSS) radar at Eureka, both maintained by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). Probability of Detection (POD), defined as the percentage of coincident CloudSat and ground observations that agree on the precipitation phase (solid, liquid or no precipitation), is used as the metric for validation. Mean POD values of CloudSat in classifying solid, liquid and non-precipitating weather at the 27 stations are 80.8%±1.5, 83.2%±1.9 and 69.8%±0.8 respectively. Binning the collocated CloudSat-ECCC hourly weather observations across Canada by the snowfall rate information available from CloudSat, we find that the accuracy of CloudSat in classifying precipitation phase increases with snowfall rate with a maximum accuracy of 85% for snowfall rates >1 mm/hr. We find that the POD varies with precipitation type, and is inversely proportional to cloud cover, with the lowest POD obtained under the heaviest cloud cover. Also, using binomial and multinomial logistic regression analysis of different physical factors, it is seen that POD ... |
format |
Master Thesis |
author |
Kodamana, Rithwik |
author_facet |
Kodamana, Rithwik |
author_sort |
Kodamana, Rithwik |
title |
Validation of precipitation phase estimates from CloudSat-CPR across Canada |
title_short |
Validation of precipitation phase estimates from CloudSat-CPR across Canada |
title_full |
Validation of precipitation phase estimates from CloudSat-CPR across Canada |
title_fullStr |
Validation of precipitation phase estimates from CloudSat-CPR across Canada |
title_full_unstemmed |
Validation of precipitation phase estimates from CloudSat-CPR across Canada |
title_sort |
validation of precipitation phase estimates from cloudsat-cpr across canada |
publisher |
University of Waterloo |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10012/15535 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-85.940,-85.940,79.990,79.990) |
geographic |
Arctic Canada Eureka |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Canada Eureka |
genre |
Arctic Climate change |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/10012/15535 |
_version_ |
1766333815382343680 |