How Does Ground Clutter Affect CloudSat Snowfall Retrievals Over Ice Sheets?

Cyril Palerme (1, 2) , Chantal Claud (1, 2) , Norman B Wood , Tristan L'Ecuyer , Christophe Genthon (3)

1 LMD - Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539)
2 IPSL (FR_636) - Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace
3 IGE - Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement

CloudSat has provided the first spaceborne snowfall observations in polar regions. Nevertheless, CloudSat retrievals may be affected by ground clutter even if the snowfall rate at the surface is estimated from the reflectivity measured at about 1200 m above land/ice surface. In this study, the impact of ground clutter contamination on CloudSat snowfall retrievals over the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets is investigated. Our results suggest that ground clutter affects CloudSat snowfall observations over some areas, particularly over complex terrain such as mountain ranges and fjords. Over these areas, the snowfall rates deduced from CloudSat observations can be, therefore, significantly overestimated. This has implications when developing snowfall climatologies from CloudSat products.

Mots clés: Clouds; Clutter; Snow; Ice; Surface topography; Antarctica; Surface contamination

Domaines: Météorologie; Océan, Atmosphère

Cyril Palerme, Chantal Claud, Norman B Wood, Tristan L'Ecuyer, Christophe Genthon. How Does Ground Clutter Affect CloudSat Snowfall Retrievals Over Ice Sheets?. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 2019, 16 (3), pp.342-346. ⟨10.1109/LGRS.2018.2875007⟩. ⟨hal-02071794⟩