Articles | Volume 12, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Evaluation of the CloudSat surface snowfall product over Antarctica using ground-based precipitation radars
Niels Souverijns
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Alexandra Gossart
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Stef Lhermitte
Department of Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands
Irina V. Gorodetskaya
CESAM – Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Physics, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
Jacopo Grazioli
Environmental Remote Sensing Laboratory, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, MeteoSwiss, Locarno-Monti, Switzerland
Alexis Berne
Environmental Remote Sensing Laboratory, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Claudio Duran-Alarcon
Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, Grenoble INP, IGE, Grenoble, France
Brice Boudevillain
Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, Grenoble INP, IGE, Grenoble, France
Christophe Genthon
Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, Grenoble INP, IGE, Grenoble, France
Claudio Scarchilli
Technical Unit for Energy and Environmental Modeling UTMEA, ENEA, Rome, Italy
Nicole P. M. van Lipzig
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Data sets
Precipitation observations at the Dumont D'Urville station, Adelie Land, East Antarctica A. Berne, J. Grazioli, and C. Genthon https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.882565
Short summary
Snowfall observations over Antarctica are scarce and currently limited to information from the CloudSat satellite. Here, a first evaluation of the CloudSat snowfall record is performed using observations of ground-based precipitation radars. Results indicate an accurate representation of the snowfall climatology over Antarctica, despite the low overpass frequency of the satellite, outperforming state-of-the-art model estimates. Individual snowfall events are however not well represented.
Snowfall observations over Antarctica are scarce and currently limited to information from the...