Cloud and precipitation properties from ground-based remote-sensing instruments in East Antarctica

Gorodetskaya, I. V.; Kneifel, S.; Maahn, M.; Van Tricht, K.; Thiery, W.; Schween, J. H.; Mangold, A.; Crewell, S.; Van Lipzig, N. P. M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-285-2015

Articles | Volume 9, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-285-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-285-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 9, issue 1

Research article

|

11 Feb 2015

Research article |

| 11 Feb 2015

Cloud and precipitation properties from ground-based remote-sensing instruments in East Antarctica

I. V. Gorodetskaya, S. Kneifel, M. Maahn, K. Van Tricht, W. Thiery, J. H. Schween, A. Mangold, S. Crewell, and N. P. M. Van Lipzig

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Final revised paper (published on 11 Feb 2015)
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Preprint (discussion started on 28 Jul 2014)
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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC C1779: 'Review of “Cloud and precipitation properties form ground-based remote sensing instruments in east Antarctica” by Gorodetskaya et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 10 Sep 2014
- AC C2602: 'Response to Reviewer 1', Irina V. Gorodetskaya, 07 Dec 2014
RC C1834: 'REVIEW', Anonymous Referee #2, 19 Sep 2014
- AC C2603: 'Response to Reviewer 2', Irina V. Gorodetskaya, 07 Dec 2014

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Irina V. Gorodetskaya on behalf of the Authors (07 Dec 2014) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (12 Dec 2014) by Martin Schneebeli

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (19 Dec 2014)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

In general the authors have done a good job of addressing my earlier comments on the manuscript. I think the manuscript is much better now and nearly ready for publication. I particularly like the new analysis of surface mass balance, Fig. 9, and the general discussion of the terms that contribute to the changes in surface height. A couple small details related to this analysis that should require a few more words:

1) Each value is given as a number +/- an uncertainty. Snowfall, for example, is given as 110 +/- 10 mm w.e. /year. I do not totally understand how the uncertainty was determined, but it is somehow related to the Monte-Carlo simulations using different Z-S relationships. Thus, the “uncertainty” here is related to the differences among Z-S relationships. However, the true uncertainty in S is much bigger. There is the uncertainty in the Z-S relationships, which themselves are often approximated to be uncertain to about a factor of two because of a variety of issues (i.e., a given snowfall not being accurately represented in terms of habit, density, etc.). Then there is also the uncertainty in the Z measurement itself. As stated, the S uncertainty is less than 10%. This is not really possible as both contributions to the uncertainty would be much larger than this. I don’t really expect that a full uncertainty analysis of the Z-S relationships will be possible here (that is the subject for a separate paper!) but the issue of uncertainty should be clarified and the impression should not be given that S is uncertain by less than 10%!

2) How are changes in surface height (a physical height) converted to changes in water equivalent accumulation? There must be a density included somewhere. Is the density profile at depth somewhat constant? Please add a little more detail here.

Otherwise I think this manuscript is in good shape and will make a very nice contribution to the field.

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (19 Dec 2014) by Martin Schneebeli

AR by Irina V. Gorodetskaya on behalf of the Authors (23 Dec 2014) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (05 Jan 2015) by Martin Schneebeli

AR by Irina V. Gorodetskaya on behalf of the Authors (06 Jan 2015)

Short summary

Our paper presents a new cloud-precipitation-meteorological observatory established in the escarpment zone of Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica. The site is characterised by bimodal cloud occurrence (clear sky or overcast) with liquid-containing clouds occurring 20% of the cloudy periods. Local surface mass balance strongly depends on rare intense snowfall events. A substantial part of the accumulated snow is removed by surface and drifting snow sublimation and wind-driven snow erosion.