Effect Of Inversion Winds On Topographic Detail And Mass Balance On Inland Ice Sheets

Steady-state gravity flow of air (inversion wind) on sloping snow-covered ice sheets is analyzed for sensitivity to local topography. Topographic features of the order of a few kilometres or less in length are too small to affect the direction and speed of this air flow. Air flow on a longer scale s...

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Published in:Journal of Glaciology
Main Author: Whillans, I.M.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1975
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000013423
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000013423
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spelling crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0022143000013423 2024-03-03T08:38:51+00:00 Effect Of Inversion Winds On Topographic Detail And Mass Balance On Inland Ice Sheets Whillans, I.M. 1975 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000013423 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000013423 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) Journal of Glaciology volume 14, issue 70, page 85-90 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 Earth-Surface Processes journal-article 1975 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000013423 2024-02-08T08:38:15Z Steady-state gravity flow of air (inversion wind) on sloping snow-covered ice sheets is analyzed for sensitivity to local topography. Topographic features of the order of a few kilometres or less in length are too small to affect the direction and speed of this air flow. Air flow on a longer scale should however conform cosely to topography. Surface roughness on ice sheets is consistent with these results. Features of length shorter than a few kilometers (drifts and sastrugi) are transient, but longer features (surface undulations) remain essentially unaltered for many years. On the longer scale, inversion wind speed and therefore the amount of drifting and blowing snow should vary with the surface slope even where slope changes by as little as 1/10%. Observed variations in surface mass balance (aceumulated snow) in upper Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, support this hypothesis. Snow drift and inversion winds thus constitute a feed-back mechanism on the form of ice sheets and some of the topographic detail, formerly attributed to ice-flow character alone, may be in large part due to this mechanism. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Journal of Glaciology Marie Byrd Land Cambridge University Press Byrd Marie Byrd Land ENVELOPE(-130.000,-130.000,-78.000,-78.000) Sastrugi ENVELOPE(163.683,163.683,-74.617,-74.617) Journal of Glaciology 14 70 85 90
institution Open Polar
collection Cambridge University Press
op_collection_id crcambridgeupr
language English
topic Earth-Surface Processes
spellingShingle Earth-Surface Processes
Whillans, I.M.
Effect Of Inversion Winds On Topographic Detail And Mass Balance On Inland Ice Sheets
topic_facet Earth-Surface Processes
description Steady-state gravity flow of air (inversion wind) on sloping snow-covered ice sheets is analyzed for sensitivity to local topography. Topographic features of the order of a few kilometres or less in length are too small to affect the direction and speed of this air flow. Air flow on a longer scale should however conform cosely to topography. Surface roughness on ice sheets is consistent with these results. Features of length shorter than a few kilometers (drifts and sastrugi) are transient, but longer features (surface undulations) remain essentially unaltered for many years. On the longer scale, inversion wind speed and therefore the amount of drifting and blowing snow should vary with the surface slope even where slope changes by as little as 1/10%. Observed variations in surface mass balance (aceumulated snow) in upper Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, support this hypothesis. Snow drift and inversion winds thus constitute a feed-back mechanism on the form of ice sheets and some of the topographic detail, formerly attributed to ice-flow character alone, may be in large part due to this mechanism.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Whillans, I.M.
author_facet Whillans, I.M.
author_sort Whillans, I.M.
title Effect Of Inversion Winds On Topographic Detail And Mass Balance On Inland Ice Sheets
title_short Effect Of Inversion Winds On Topographic Detail And Mass Balance On Inland Ice Sheets
title_full Effect Of Inversion Winds On Topographic Detail And Mass Balance On Inland Ice Sheets
title_fullStr Effect Of Inversion Winds On Topographic Detail And Mass Balance On Inland Ice Sheets
title_full_unstemmed Effect Of Inversion Winds On Topographic Detail And Mass Balance On Inland Ice Sheets
title_sort effect of inversion winds on topographic detail and mass balance on inland ice sheets
publisher Cambridge University Press (CUP)
publishDate 1975
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000013423
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000013423
long_lat ENVELOPE(-130.000,-130.000,-78.000,-78.000)
ENVELOPE(163.683,163.683,-74.617,-74.617)
geographic Byrd
Marie Byrd Land
Sastrugi
geographic_facet Byrd
Marie Byrd Land
Sastrugi
genre Antarc*
Antarctica
Journal of Glaciology
Marie Byrd Land
genre_facet Antarc*
Antarctica
Journal of Glaciology
Marie Byrd Land
op_source Journal of Glaciology
volume 14, issue 70, page 85-90
ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000013423
container_title Journal of Glaciology
container_volume 14
container_issue 70
container_start_page 85
op_container_end_page 90
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