Short-time forecasting of snowfall by lidar

Abstract

The possibility of short-time forecasting of snowfall by Mie lidar is discussed. The integrated intensity of backscattered signal, ceiling hight, information about wind velocity, and the depolarization ratio can be obtained by lidar observation of snow clouds. It was found that the time variation of the ceiling height is most useful for forecasting the beginning of snowfall. It was found also that the ceiling height began to drop ~2 h before the snow fell when the temperature on the ground was <0°C. This implies that snowfall can be predicted ~2 h in advance.