Towards a Radar-based Gridded Snowfall Intensity Analysis

The rate at which snow falls is important to aviation interests. Accumulating snow directly impacts operations by reducing visibility, constraining runway availability, decreasing holdover times, and more. Despite the importance of snow rate to operations, there are few direct observations of snow rate. The more common snow intensity reported by surface stations (ASOS/AWOS) is not a measured snow rate, but is rather derived from visibility. Snow intensity is a point measurement typically taken at the airport, which is by definition already experiencing the impacts of the snow. A gridded field of snow intensity would enable better decision support to anticipate changes in the on-site snow intensity observation.

Here, the effectiveness of using an experimental radar-based snow visibility algorithm to create a gridded snow intensity product is demonstrated. First, the improvement in verification statistics (e.g. Probability of Detection, Gerrity Skill Score) over a reflectivity baseline will be presented. Then, examples of how a gridded snowfall intensity could be used for enhanced decision support will be explored from the perspective of case studies. Finally, future avenues for improvement of this product will be discussed.