The High lAtitude sNowfall DEtection aLgorithm for ATMS (HANDEL-ATMS): a new algorithm for snowfall retrieval at the high latitudes

In this work the High lAtitude sNow Detection and rEtrieval aLgorithm for ATMS (HANDEL-ATMS), a new snowfall retrieval algorithm developed especially for high latitude environmental conditions and based on the ATMS observations, is described. The algorithm is based on the use of ATMS-CPR coincidence dataset, i. e. a dataset where each ATMS multichannel observation is associated with a vertical snow profile obtained by the CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) and therefore it is possible to analyze the relationship between the vertical precipitation structure and the PMW measurements in a direct way, without using simulated datasets.