Measurements of precipitation in Dumont d´Urville, Adelie Land, East Antarctica

Year: 2017

Authors: Grazioli J., Genthon C., Boudevillain B., Duran-Alarcon C., Del Guasta M., Madeleine J.-B., Berne A.

Autors Affiliation: Ecole Polytech Fed Lausanne, Environm Remote Sensing Lab LTE, Lausanne, Switzerland; MeteoSwiss, Locarno, Switzerland; Univ Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IGE, F-38000 Grenoble, France; CNR, INO, Florence, Italy; UPMC Univ Paris 06, Sorbonne Univ, UMR 8539, Lab Meteorol Dynam IPSL, Paris, France; CNRS, UMR 8539, LMD, IPSL Climate Modeling Ctr, Paris, France.

Abstract: The first results of a campaign of intensive observation of precipitation in Dumont d\’Urville, Antarctica, are presented. Several instruments collected data from November 2015 to February 2016 or longer, including a polarimetric radar (MXPol), a Micro Rain Radar (MRR), a weighing gauge (Pluvio2), and a Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera (MASC). These instruments collected the first ground-based measurements of precipitation in the region of Adélie Land (Terre Adélie), including precipitation microphysics. Microphysical observations during the austral summer 2015/2016 showed that, close to the ground level, aggregates are the dominant hydrometeor type, together with small ice particles (mostly originating from blowing snow), and that riming is a recurring process. Eleven percent of the measured particles were fully developed graupel, and aggregates had a mean riming degree of about 30 %. Spurious precipitation in the Pluvio2 measurements in windy conditions, leading to phantom accumulations, is observed and partly removed through synergistic use of MRR data. The yearly accumulated precipitation of snow (300 m above ground), obtained by means of a local conversion relation of MRR data, trained on the Pluvio2 measurement of the summer period, is estimated to be 815 mm of water equivalent, with a confidence interval ranging between 739.5 and 989 mm. Data obtained in previous research from satellite-borne radars, and the ERA-Interim reanalysis of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) provide lower yearly totals: 655 mm for ERA-Interim and 679 mm for the climatological data over DDU. ERA-Interim overestimates the occurrence of low-intensity precipitation events especially in summer, but it compensates for them by underestimating the snowfall amounts carried by the most intense events. Overall, this paper provides insightful examples of the added values of precipitation monitoring in Antarctica with a synergistic use of in situ and remote sensing measurements.

Journal/Review: CRYOSPHERE

Volume: 11 (4)      Pages from: 1797  to: 1811

More Information: The authors are thankful to M?t?o France, and in particular to the team of Dumont d\’Urville who provided the access to their in situ measurements and observations. We thank the French Polar Institute (IPEV), in particular Gregory Tran, Doris Thuillier, and Patrice Godon, who allowed the APRES3 measurement campaign to take place. We thank Paul Dufay, overwinterer at DDU, who provided crucial assistance for the operation of the MRR during the winter season. The first author, Jacopo Grazioli, thanks the Swiss National Science foundation SNF for the grant 200021-163287, financing his participation to the project. The authors also acknowledge the support of the French National Research Agency (ANR) to the APRES3 project and also of CNES/TOSCA, program EECLAT. For the remote technical support provided, we want to thank Andrew Pazmany and Johnatan Leachman (Prosensing Inc., manufacturer of MXPol). Jean-Baptiste Madeleine also thanks UPMC university for financial assistance. We are thankful to Tim Raupach and Christophe Praz (EPFL LTE) for the help in proofreading and in the revision of the manuscript.
KeyWords: Aggregate; confidence interval; data inversion; gauge; ground-based measurement; instrumentation; precipitation (chemistry); precipitation intensity; radar; satellite data; snow; spatiotemporal analysis; videography; weather forecasting, Adelie Coast; Antarctica; Dumont d\’Urville; East Antarctica
DOI: 10.5194/tc-11-1797-2017

Citations: 60
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