A survey of snow growth signatures from tropics to Antarctica using triple-frequency radar observations

Abstract. Snow formation is a complex interplay of multiple microphysical growth processes, and the prevailing snow characteristics are inherently linked to local climate. However, the persistent shortage of observations for characterizing snow microphysics at a global scale continues to constrain our understanding of snow growth processes. Here, we investigate snow riming and aggregation signatures in stratiform precipitation through triple-frequency radar observations collected during coordinated field campaigns across Southern China, the Eastern United States, Western Europe, Northern Europe and Antarctica. The results suggest that the velocity-based riming estimates are generally consistent with triple-frequency observations, and the riming frequency increases with temperature. Our analysis of dual-frequency observations in these field campaigns qualitatively indicate the dendritic growth zone around −15 °C playing a key role in initiating enhanced snow size growth, and reveals a generally temperature-dependent snowflake growth characteristics. The snow over Eastern US is characterized by the most prominent riming growth, corresponding to moderate to heavy riming. Triple-frequency signatures of snowflakes over west Europe are consistent with Southern China, while the latter shows a higher degree of riming. The weakest snow growth signatures were found over west Antarctica, potentially owing to the scarcity of ice nucleating particles and available water vapor for deposition. In addition, our statistics reveal a latitudinal dependence for snowfall detection limitations with current spaceborne Ku- and Ka-band radars, and shed novel insights into future triple-frequency satellite missions as well as joint application of weather and spaceborne radars.