Cellular Snow Generation—A Doppler Radar Study

Abstract

Snow generating cells were observed by vertically pointing Doppler radar. Analysis was carried out in three distinct regions. The region exhibiting cellular structure was found to consist of convective elements with vertical velocities ±1.5 m s?1 in magnitude. A generation region was found to exist beneath the convective region with updrafts of 0.5 in s?1 sustained over a 7 km path length which originated at a generating level less than 75 m in depth associated with an inversion layer. The trail region below exhibited maximum downdrafts of 0.5 m s?1 or no net vertical motions. Maximum ice content was estimated to be no larger than 0.24 g m?2 in the convective cells. Growth appeared to take place throughout the rise and fall of the snow crystals in the updraft regions.