Properties and potential radiative impacts of Antarctic blowing snow

Blowing snow plays an important role in the studies of the Earth’s cryosphere. Not only can it affects the ice sheet mass balance and hydrological processes through redistributing surface mass and driving spatial and temporal variations in snow accumulation, it also has a significant impact on the long wave radiation budget both at the surface and at the top of the atmosphere. In this article, we show that blowing snow has substantial impact on the Antarctic Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR). Significant cloud-free OLR differences are observed between the clear and blowing snow sky, with the sign and magnitude depending on season and time of the day.