The potential effects of air pollution in the alpine regions have received some attention from the scientific community in recent years. Recent satellite-based Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) observations depicting the effect of "pollution plumes" on cloud droplet effective radius in south-eastern Australia have raised concerns about suppression of precipitation in the Snowy Mountains region.

A method is proposed to directly evaluate claims that precipitation in the Snowy Mountains has been suppressed by pollution from urban and industrial sources. Back trajectories are used to provide a meteorological link between suspected pollution sources and a Snowy Mountains analysis region, and both satellite-derived cloud microphysics and surface precipitation observations are considered. It is shown that, while there is a clear link between the microphysics observations and surface precipitation rates, no convincing relationship exists between any of the pollution sources and Snowy Mountains cloud or precipitation observations.