Investigating KDP signatures inside and below the dendritic growth layer with W-band Doppler radar and in situ snowfall camera

Kötsche, Anton; Myagkov, Alexander; von Terzi, Leonie; Maahn, Maximilian; Ettrichrätz, Veronika; Vogl, Teresa; Ryzhkov, Alexander; Bukovcic, Petar; Ori, Davide; Kalesse-Los, Heike

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14045-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 20

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14045-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Fusion of radar polarimetry and numerical atmospheric modelling...

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14045-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 20

Research article

|

29 Oct 2025

Research article |

| 29 Oct 2025

Investigating KDP signatures inside and below the dendritic growth layer with W-band Doppler radar and in situ snowfall camera

Anton Kötsche, Alexander Myagkov, Leonie von Terzi, Maximilian Maahn, Veronika Ettrichrätz, Teresa Vogl, Alexander Ryzhkov, Petar Bukovcic, Davide Ori, and Heike Kalesse-Los

Data sets

Characterizatio of Orography-Influenced Riming and Secondary Ice Production and Their Effects on Precipitation Rates Using Radar Polarimetry and Doppler Spectra (CORSIPP-SAIL) H. Kalesse-Los et al. https://doi.org/10.5439/2229846

VISSS Raw data from SAIL at Gothic from November 2022 to June 2023 M. Maahn et al. https://doi.org/10.5439/2278627

ARM-standard Meteorological Instrumentation at Surface J. Kyrouac et al. https://doi.org/10.5439/1786358

ARM Instrument: MWR Retrievals D. Zhang https://doi.org/10.5439/1027369

Ka ARM Zenith Radar (KAZRCFRGE), 2022-11-10 to 2023-06-06, ARM Mobile Facility (GUC), Gunnison, CO; AMF2 (main site for SAIL) (M1) I. Lindenmaier et al. https://doi.org/10.5439/1498936

X-Band Precipitation Radar (XPRECIPRADAR) V. Chandrasekar https://doi.org/10.5439/1888379

ARM Instrument: Interpolated Sonde M. Jensen et al. https://doi.org/10.5439/1095316

Short summary

Our study combines radar observations of snow with snowfall camera observations on the ground to enhance our understanding of radar variables and snowfall properties. We found that values of an important radar variable (K_DP) can be related to many different snow particle properties and number concentrations. We were able to constrain which particle sizes contribute to K_DP by using computer models of snowflakes and showed which microphysical processes during snow formation can influence K_DP.