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Observations of cloud and precipitation particles on the Avery Plateau, Antarctic Peninsula

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2004

Tom Lachlan-Cope ,
Russell Ladkin ,
John Turner  and
Paul Davison
Tom Lachlan-Cope
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road Cambridge CB3 OET, UK
Russell Ladkin
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road Cambridge CB3 OET, UK
John Turner
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road Cambridge CB3 OET, UK
Paul Davison
Affiliation:
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Manchester, UK
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Abstract

Surface-based observations were taken of cloud and precipitation particles on the Avery Plateau (66°50.34′S 65°29.58′W), Antarctic Peninsula from 25 November to 13 December 1995. This paper considers cloud parameters on three days during this period when the cloud base reached ground level and snow was falling. It was found that on all three days more ice crystals were present in the cloud than would be expected from simple theoretical considerations. The rate of snowfall decreased as the number of ice crystals increased, the large number of ice crystals present effectively suppressing the formation of large precipitation-sized crystals. The source of the ice nuclei that allowed the formation of the large number of crystals is not known for certain but is thought to be the snow surface, possibly in the form of very fine ice crystals blown from the surface during blowing/drifting snow episodes.

Keywords

cloudsmicrophysicsprecipitation
Type
Papers—Atmospheric Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , September 2001 , pp. 339 - 348
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 2001

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