Repository logo

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
  1. Home
  2. Academic and Research Output
  3. Conferences, Workshops, Symposiums, and Seminars
  4. From the Clouds to the Ground - Snow Precipitation Patterns in Complex Terrain
 
conference presentation

From the Clouds to the Ground - Snow Precipitation Patterns in Complex Terrain

Gerber, Franziska  
•
Besic, Nikola  
•
Sharma, Varun  
Show more
2018
POLAR2018

Snow accumulation patterns are determined by many different processes from ice crystal nucleation in clouds to snow redistribution by wind and avalanches. In between, snow precipitation undergoes different dynamical and microphysical processes, such as ice crystal growth, aggregation and riming, which determine the growth of particles and thereby influence the intensity and structure of the snowfall event. In alpine terrain the interaction of different processes and the topography may lead to orographic enhancement and preferential deposition of precipitation. To better understand the relative importance of different pre-depositional processes on snow precipitation we analyze three snowfall events between January and March 2016 in Davos (CH). Snow precipitation patterns from MeteoSwiss operational weather radar measurements on Weissfluhgipfel and very high resolution Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulations show reasonable agreement with measurements from automatic weather stations. Overall, radar precipitation patterns show higher small scale variability compared to WRF simulations. Two-dimensional autocorrelation maps and variograms of precipitation patterns reveal a strong dependence of radar and WRF precipitation on topography and the prevailing wind direction, which emphasizes the importance of large-scale orographic enhancement on regional scales and small-scale topography-wind interactions on a mountain ridge scale.

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
conference presentation
Author(s)
Gerber, Franziska  
Besic, Nikola  
Sharma, Varun  
Daniels, Megan
Mott, Rebecca
Gabella, Marco
Germann, Urs
Berne, Alexis  
Lehning, Michael  
Date Issued

2018

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
CRYOS  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
POLAR2018

Davos, Switzerland

2018-06-19

Available on Infoscience
March 1, 2019
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/154986
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
  • Contact
  • infoscience@epfl.ch

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on X
  • Follow us on Youtube
AccessibilityLegal noticePrivacy policyCookie settingsEnd User AgreementGet helpFeedback

Infoscience is a service managed and provided by the Library and IT Services of EPFL. © EPFL, tous droits réservés