How Does Ground Clutter Affect CloudSat Snowfall Retrievals Over Ice Sheets?

CloudSat has provided the first spaceborne snowfall observations in polar regions. Nevertheless, CloudSat retrievals may be affected by ground clutter even if the snowfall rate at the surface is estimated from the reflectivity measured at about 1200 m above land/ice surface. In this study, the impact of ground clutter contamination on CloudSat snowfall retrievals over the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets is investigated. Our results suggest that ground clutter affects CloudSat snowfall observations over some areas, particularly over complex terrain such as mountain ranges and fjords. Over these areas, the snowfall rates deduced from CloudSat observations can be, therefore, significantly overestimated. This has implications when developing snowfall climatologies from CloudSat products.