Abstract
CloudSat is often the only measurement of snowfall rate available at high latitudes, making it a valuable tool for understanding snow climatology. The capability of CloudSat to provide information on seasonal and subseasonal time scales, however, has yet to be explored. In this study, we use subsampled reanalysis estimates to predict the uncertainties of CloudSat snow water equivalent (SWE) accumulation measurements at various space and time resolutions. An idealized/simulated subsampling model predicts that CloudSat may provide seasonal SWE estimates with median percent errors below 50% at spatial scales as small as 2° × 2°. By converting these predictions to percent differences, we can evaluate CloudSat snowfall accumulations against a blend of gridded SWE measurements during frozen time periods. Our predictions are in good agreement with results. The 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of the percent differences between the two measurements all match predicted values within eight percentage points. We interpret these results to suggest that CloudSat snowfall estimates are in sufficient agreement with other, thoroughly vetted, gridded SWE products. This implies that CloudSat may provide useful estimates of snow accumulation over remote regions within seasonal time scales.
Highlights
Most snow that falls on the planet lands over remote and unpopulated terrain where few in situ measurements are available [1,2]
At finer spatiotemporal resolutions CloudSat snowfall estimates have larger disagreements with surface evaluations, since ∆SWEC may be disproportionately impacted by non-precipitating periods or snowfall rates during individual storms that will often be stronger than average snowfall rates [34]
We evaluated the potential of CloudSat to measure seasonal snowfall accumulation
Summary
Most snow that falls on the planet lands over remote and unpopulated terrain where few in situ measurements are available [1,2]. Reanalysis models or interpolated hydrological products rely on in situ SWE observations thousands of km apart, and SWE estimates between different methods can vary significantly [3]. Recent observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE-FO) have successfully been used to provide novel information on total snowpack in mountainous regions and high latitudes [4]. This measurement inherently combines all mass-change that occurs during a time period, . If one is interested in total deposited snowfall, that information will be absorbed alongside any snowmelt, rain, evaporation, or blowing that occurs
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