Ground Based In-situ Measurements of Snowfall with a 2D-Video Distrometer on Mt. Zugspitze, Germany

Abstract:

Measuring micro physical properties of snowfall is a challenging task that is essential in many areas of research. Some examples are wet deposition of atmospheric pollution, electromagnetic wave propagation during snowfall, avalanche and glacier research. In recent years the 2D-video-disdrometer (2DVD, Joanneum Research) has been established for ground based in-situ rain measurements. The 2DVD is an optical device that delivers shape, size and velocity information derived from a front and a side view taken from each hydrometeor falling through the sensitive area. In case of snowfall the user has to be aware of certain diffculties that are addressed in this contribution.
For our study we installed the 2DVD at the Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus (UFS) on Mt. Zugspitze, Germany (2650m a.s.l.). We analyzed a data set consisting of 150 days with snowfall and 70 man made observations including a classifcation according to the World Meteorologic Organization code 4677. We compared measured micro physical parameters with man made observations of shape, degree of riming and humidity of single hydrometeors and correlated the precipitation rate and total water equivalent from the 2DVD with measurements of a weighing precipitation sensor (in cooperation with the Institute for Geophysics and Meteorology, University Cologne).
We show that the implementation of a matching algorithm that finds appropriate pairs of pictures is essential for reliable measurement results. Without the improved matching algorithm the data sets contain about 80% of hydrometeors with extreme geometries and velocities. Applying the new matching algorithm 2DVD measurements and man made observations fit in most of the cases of calm winds. Simply summing up hydrometeor volumes derived from the measured apparent diameters leads to an overestimation of water equivalent by a factor of 10. The measurement of water equivalent is improved significantly with the use of a size-density relation for snow flakes.
With the mentioned improvements in the analysis algorithm, the 2DVD is a suitable instrument for micro- and macroscopic snow event characterization. Nevertheless ground based in-situ measurement of snow properties stays a diffcult task, regarding the influence of wind fields especially at alpine mountain stations.