Towards a Process-Based Understanding of Precipitation Regimes at Troll Station, Antarctica

2025 Internship Project Overview

We present a new methodology for gridded snowfall reconstruction in Antarctica using the scanning radar from the Troll Observing Network Integrated Cloud Observatory (TONe-ICO). To our knowledge, this is the first study to generate a spatially two-dimensional Antarctic snowfall reconstruction from atmospheric radar. Installed in March 2025, TONe-ICO performs hourly Doppler radar scans within a 15 km radius of Troll Station. We correct radar reflectivity for elevation using a Vertical Profile of Reflectivity (VPR) correction, convert to snowfall rate using the power-law relation of Souverijns et al. (2017), and integrate to obtain hourly snow accumulation. This provides spatially continuous, high-resolution estimates, in contrast to sparse pointwise measurements (stakes, snow pits, disdrometers) and coarse-resolution reanalyses or regional climate models. Our retrieval captures orographic effects and storm-scale variability missed by ERA5. Comparison with independent estimates and validation at Neumayer III demonstrate the robustness of the method, while highlighting the need for further in situ validation and potential improvements through dual-polarization approaches.