How much snow falls in the world's mountains? A first look at mountain snowfall estimates in A-train observations and reanalyses

摘要: Abstract. CloudSat estimates that 1773 km 3 of snow falls, on average, each year over the world's mountains. This amounts to 5 % global snowfall accumulations. study synthetizes mountain snowfall estimates over four continents containing mountains (Eurasia, North America, South America and Africa), comparing from a new satellite cloud-radar-based dataset those widely used reanalyses: Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research Applications (MERRA), MERRA-2, Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA-55), European Center Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim). Globally, fraction snow that falls in is very similar between all these independent datasets (4 %–5 %), providing confidence this estimate. The fraction compared continent as a whole also different datasets. However, the total globally over – critical factor governing freshwater availability these regions varies widely between The consensus fractions dissimilarities in magnitude could indicate large-scale forcings may be the five datasets, while local orographic enhancements at smaller scales not be captured. have significant implications our ability to diagnose regional trends its impacts snowpack in rapidly evolving alpine environments.