An airborne profiling radar view of lake-effect snow circulations transitioning from an open water surface to moderate terrain

During the 2013-2014 OWLeS campaign (Ontario Winter Lake-effect Systems), the Wyoming King Air flew several missions over and in lake-effect snow bands as they transitioned from a fully coupled circulation over the lake surface to increasingly stratified flow over the downwind land surface with moderately complex terrain, i.e. the Tug Hill and Adirondack Mountains. This study mainly uses the Wyoming Cloud Radar, a mm-wave Doppler profiling radar aboard the Wyoming King Air. We explore the transition in vertical structure using radiosonde soundings, as well as WCR vertical velocity and reflectivity analyzed in terms of transects, frequency-by-altitude diagrams, and power spectra.