APP (YOPP) - Antarctic precipitation properties from ground-based instruments

The observatory is designed to be set up at the Italian Antarctic station Mario Zucchelli integrating the current instrumentation for weather measurements with other instruments specific for precipitation observations. In particular, a 24-GHz vertical pointing radar, Micro Rain Radar, and an optical disdrometer, Parsivel will be integrated with the advanced weather stations, radiosoundings and the ceilometer.

The synergetic use of the set of instruments allows for characterizing precipitation and studying properties of Antarctic precipitation such as dimension, shapes, fall behavior, density of particles, particles size distribution, particles terminal velocity, reflectivity factor and including some information on their vertical extent. The project is for four years, it started in July 2017 and will be active until July 2020, covering the Special Observation Period (SOP) in the Southern Hemisphere of Year of Polar Predicition (YOPP) period.