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. The ability of single-frequency, millimeter-wavelength radar reflectivityobservations to provide useful constraints for retrieval of snow particlesize distribution (PSD) parameters, snowfall rates, and snowfall accumulationsis examined. An optimal estimation snowfall retrieval that allowsanalyses of retrieval uncertainties and information content is appliedto observations of near-surface W-band reflectivities from multiplesnowfall events during the 2006–2007 winter season in southern Ontario.Retrieved instantaneous snowfall rates generally have uncertaintiesgreater than 100 %, but single-event and seasonal snow accumulationsfrom the retrieval results match well with collocatedmeasurements of accumulations. Absolute fractional differences aremainly below 30 % for individual events that have more substantialaccumulations and, for the season, 12.6 %. Uncertainties in retrievedsnowfall rates are driven mainly by uncertainties in the retrievedPSD parameters, followed by uncertainties in particle model parametersand, to a lesser extent, the uncertainties in the fall-speed model. Uncertainties attributable to assuming an exponential distributionare negligible. The results indicate that improvements to PSD andparticle model a priori constraints provide the most impactful pathforward for reducing uncertainties in retrieved snowfall rates. Informationcontent analyses reveal that PSD slope is well-constrained by theretrieval. Given the sensitivity of PSD slope to microphysical transformations,the results show that such retrievals, when applied to radar reflectivityprofiles, could provide information about microphysical transformationsin the snowing column. The PSD intercept is less well-constrained by the retrieval. While applied to near-surface radar observationsin this study, the retrieval is applicable as well to radar observationsaloft, such as those provided by profiling ground-based, airborne,and satellite-borne radars under lighter snowfall conditions whenattenuation and multiple scattering can be neglected.

What millimeter-wavelength radar reflectivity reveals about snowfall: an information-centric analysis