Abstract
Snow particle size distribution (PSD) information is important in understanding the microphysics and quantitative precipitation estimation over complex terrain. Measurement and interpretation of the snow PSDs is a topic of active research. This study investigates snow PSDs during 3 year of observations from Parsivel2 disdrometers and precipitation imaging packages (PIP) at five different sites in the PyeongChang region of South Korea. Variabilities in the values of the density of snow (ρ), snowfall rate (S), and ice water content (IWC) are studied. To further understand the characteristics of snow PSD at different density and snowfall rate, the snow particle size distribution measurements are divided into six classes based on the density values of snowfall and five classes based on snowfall rates. The mean shape factors (Dm, log10Nw, and μ) of normalized gamma distribution are also derived based on different density and snowfall rate classes. The Dm decreases and log10Nw and μ increase as the density increases. The Dm and log10Nw increase and μ decreases with the increase of snowfall rate. The power-law relationship between ρ and Dm is obtained and the relationship between S and IWC is also derived.
Highlights
Particle size distribution (PSD) information is related to thermal, microphysical, and dynamic mechanisms of precipitation formation and evolution [1]
Three years of observations of snow particle size distribution (PSD) from three Parsivel2 disdrometers and two precipitation imaging packages (PIP) deployed at five different sites were analyzed to explore the microphysical characteristics of snowfall in the PyeongChang region of South Korea
The results of this paper provide a good understanding of the microphysical nature of snowfall, which is useful for remote sensing and numerical weather prediction (NWP) and gives a potential use in estimates of snow PSD parameters
Summary
Particle size distribution (PSD) information is related to thermal, microphysical, and dynamic mechanisms of precipitation formation and evolution [1]. There is few size–density relationships mentioned in the previous studies which describe the density of snow [30,31,32] These relationships cannot describe the density of snow events captured in the PyeongChang region, because snow particles vary greatly in different topography and events [26,27,28,30,31,32,33,34,35]. 2018 (ICE-POP 2018) to improve the understanding of the microphysical characteristics of snowfall of snowfall and predictability of NWP-based nowcasting over complex terrain [36].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
