Wind Regimes And Heat Exchange On Glacier De Saint-Sorlin

During the summers of 1969 and 1970, we recorded in the ablation zone of the Glacier de St-Sorlin (Massif des Grandes Rousses, France) temperature, air moisture, and wind profiles, as well as the radiation balance and the daily ablation. Numerous profiles characterize a katabatic flow following the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Glaciology
Main Author: Martin, S.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1975
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000013435
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000013435
Description
Summary:During the summers of 1969 and 1970, we recorded in the ablation zone of the Glacier de St-Sorlin (Massif des Grandes Rousses, France) temperature, air moisture, and wind profiles, as well as the radiation balance and the daily ablation. Numerous profiles characterize a katabatic flow following the line of greatest slope, and there appears to be a correlation between the speed of the “glacier wind” and the corresponding temperature gradients. Computed according to Prandtl’s theory of turbulent transfers, the flux of sensible and latent heat added to the radiation flux leads to theoretical values for the daily melting in good agreement with the measured values. The relative importance of the radiation balance on the melting of the snow is 57%; that of the sensible heat flux is 43%; the latent heat flux is very weak and negative.