Snow and blue-ice distribution patterns on the coastal Antarctic Ice Sheet
Surface patterns of alternating snow and blue-ice bands are found in the Jutulgryta area of Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. The snow-accumulation regions exist in the lee of blue-ice topographic ridges aligned perpendicular to winter winds. The snow bands are c . 500–2000 m wide and up to several ki...
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0954102000000109 2024-05-19T07:30:43+00:00 Snow and blue-ice distribution patterns on the coastal Antarctic Ice Sheet Liston, Glen E. Winther, Jan-Gunnar Bruland, Oddbjørn Elvehøy, Hallgeir Sand, Knut Karlöf, Lars 2000 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102000000109 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102000000109 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Antarctic Science volume 12, issue 1, page 69-79 ISSN 0954-1020 1365-2079 journal-article 2000 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954102000000109 2024-05-02T06:51:16Z Surface patterns of alternating snow and blue-ice bands are found in the Jutulgryta area of Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. The snow-accumulation regions exist in the lee of blue-ice topographic ridges aligned perpendicular to winter winds. The snow bands are c . 500–2000 m wide and up to several kilometres long. In Jutulgryta, these features cover c . 5000 km 2 . These alternating snow and blue-ice bands are simulated using a snow transport and redistribution model, SnowTran-3D, that is driven with a winter cycle of observed daily screen-height air temperature, humidity, and wind speed and direction. The snow-transport model is coupled to a wind model that simulates wind flow over the relatively complex topography. Model results indicate that winter winds interact with the ice topographic features to produce alternating surface patterns of snow accumulation and erosion. In addition, model sensitivity simulations suggest that subtle topographic variations, on the order of 5m elevation change over a horizontal distance of 1 to 1.5 km, can lead to snow-accumulation variations that differ by a factor of six. This result is expected to have important consequences regarding the choice of sites for ice-coring efforts in Antarctica and elsewhere. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Science Antarctica Dronning Maud Land Ice Sheet Cambridge University Press Antarctic Science 12 1 69 79 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
Surface patterns of alternating snow and blue-ice bands are found in the Jutulgryta area of Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. The snow-accumulation regions exist in the lee of blue-ice topographic ridges aligned perpendicular to winter winds. The snow bands are c . 500–2000 m wide and up to several kilometres long. In Jutulgryta, these features cover c . 5000 km 2 . These alternating snow and blue-ice bands are simulated using a snow transport and redistribution model, SnowTran-3D, that is driven with a winter cycle of observed daily screen-height air temperature, humidity, and wind speed and direction. The snow-transport model is coupled to a wind model that simulates wind flow over the relatively complex topography. Model results indicate that winter winds interact with the ice topographic features to produce alternating surface patterns of snow accumulation and erosion. In addition, model sensitivity simulations suggest that subtle topographic variations, on the order of 5m elevation change over a horizontal distance of 1 to 1.5 km, can lead to snow-accumulation variations that differ by a factor of six. This result is expected to have important consequences regarding the choice of sites for ice-coring efforts in Antarctica and elsewhere. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Liston, Glen E. Winther, Jan-Gunnar Bruland, Oddbjørn Elvehøy, Hallgeir Sand, Knut Karlöf, Lars |
spellingShingle |
Liston, Glen E. Winther, Jan-Gunnar Bruland, Oddbjørn Elvehøy, Hallgeir Sand, Knut Karlöf, Lars Snow and blue-ice distribution patterns on the coastal Antarctic Ice Sheet |
author_facet |
Liston, Glen E. Winther, Jan-Gunnar Bruland, Oddbjørn Elvehøy, Hallgeir Sand, Knut Karlöf, Lars |
author_sort |
Liston, Glen E. |
title |
Snow and blue-ice distribution patterns on the coastal Antarctic Ice Sheet |
title_short |
Snow and blue-ice distribution patterns on the coastal Antarctic Ice Sheet |
title_full |
Snow and blue-ice distribution patterns on the coastal Antarctic Ice Sheet |
title_fullStr |
Snow and blue-ice distribution patterns on the coastal Antarctic Ice Sheet |
title_full_unstemmed |
Snow and blue-ice distribution patterns on the coastal Antarctic Ice Sheet |
title_sort |
snow and blue-ice distribution patterns on the coastal antarctic ice sheet |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2000 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102000000109 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102000000109 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Science Antarctica Dronning Maud Land Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Science Antarctica Dronning Maud Land Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Antarctic Science volume 12, issue 1, page 69-79 ISSN 0954-1020 1365-2079 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954102000000109 |
container_title |
Antarctic Science |
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12 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
69 |
op_container_end_page |
79 |
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1799488815072542720 |