Various precipitation gauges have been used at the national observational networks around the globe (Sevruk and Klemm, 1989). Their catch efficiencies are very different particularly for snowfall observations mainly due to differences in designs and gauge installations. The WMO solid precipitation measurement intercomparison project has defined the catch-wind relationships for many national gauges, including those used in the cold regions (Goodison et al., 1998).

The Arctic climate is characterized by low temperature, generally low precipitation and high winds. Arctic precipitation events generally produce small amounts but they occur frequently and often with blowing snow. Because of the special condition in the Arctic, the systematic errors in precipitation gauge measurements are enhanced and need special attention. This issue has been a considered in the WCRP projects, such as ACSYS/CliC and GEWEX.

Recognizing the importance of the precipitation data quality to cold region hydrologic and climatic investigations, the (Japan) Frontier Research System for Global Change and the Water and Environmental Research Center (WERC), University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) have collaboratively undertaken a gauge intercomparison experimental study in Barrow, Alaska. The goal of this research to: a) test the national standard gauges in the arctic condition to evaluate the results of the WMO solid precipitation intercomparison; and, b) investigate and quantity blowing snow impact on gauge snowfall observations.

In the fall of 2001, an automatic weather station and several precipitation or snow gauges have been installed at the test site:

GAUGE PHOTOS

Double Fence Intercomparison Reference (DFIR) gauge at 2.5m -- the WMO reference. Photo by D.Yang
Wyoming snow fence system at 2.5m - US reference gauge for snowfall observations. Photo by D.Yang
Hellmann gauge at 2m- standard gauge for Greenland, Denmark and Germany. Photo by S. Berezovskaya
Russian Tretyakov gauge at 2m - Russian standard gauge, also used in Mongolia and other countries. Photo by D.Yang
US NWS 8" non-recording gauge at 2m - US standard gauge, widely used in other countries. Photo by S. Berezovskaya
Canadian Nipher snow gauge at 2m. Photo by S. Berezovskaya

Preliminary analyses of field data show that mean catch of the gauges for snowfall observations are similar to the WMO results. Detail descriptions of methods and data analyses have been summarized in the publications below.

Yang, D., K. Sugiura and T. Ohata, 2002: UAF/Frontier Snowfall/Blowing snow Observations at Barrow CMDL: Preliminary Result for 2001. 2002 CMDL annual report, NOAA [ pdf ]

Sugiura, K., D. Yang, and T. Ohata, 2003: Systematic error aspects of gauge-measured solid precipitation in the Arctic, Barrow, Alaska, Geophysical Research Letters, 3(4), 1192, doi: 10.1029/2002GL015547 [ pdf ]