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Abstract
This work presents an analysis of data from six wintertime precipitation (snow) sensors operated at the windy and forested Glacier Lakes Ecosystem Experiments Site located in the Medicine Bow Mountains of southeastern Wyoming. There are two findings. First, a comparison of precipitation measurements from the tower-based Hotplate (a new type of precipitation sensor, operated on top of a 30 m tower) and the surface-based Vaisala precipitation sensor (VRG) showed that during cold-season conditions the VRG measurement is positively biased relative to the Hotplate. Second, one of the surface-based National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) sensors, an Alter-shielded Belfort precipitation gauge, is also positively biased. In this comparison the NADP sensor reports an average precipitation rate which is a factor 1.6 larger than the Brooklyn Lake Snow Telemetry gauge. Both of these findings are attributed to the enhanced registration of wind-redistributed ice particles (blowing snow aliasing as snowfall) by the overestimating gauge.
