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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Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
1975
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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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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 |
_version_ |
1792507318257057792 |