Blowing snow in coastal Adelie Land, Antarctica: three atmospheric-moisture issues

International audience A total of 3 years of blowing-snow observations and associated meteorology along a 7 m mast at site D17 in coastal Adelie Land are presented. The observations are used to address three atmospheric-moisture issues related to the occurrence of blowing snow, a feature which large...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Cryosphere
Main Authors: Barral, Hélène, Genthon, Christophe, Trouvilliez, A., Brun, Christophe, Amory, C.
Other Authors: Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre d'Etudes et d'Expertise sur les Risques, l'Environnement, la Mobilité et l'Aménagement - Direction Eau Mer et Fleuves (Cerema Direction Eau Mer et Fleuves), Centre d'Etudes et d'Expertise sur les Risques, l'Environnement, la Mobilité et l'Aménagement (Cerema), Laboratoire des Écoulements Géophysiques et Industriels Grenoble (LEGI), Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF), Erosion torrentielle neige et avalanches (UR ETGR (ETNA)), Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: HAL CCSD 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01143783
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01143783/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01143783/file/gr2014-pub00043727.pdf
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1905-2014
Description
Summary:International audience A total of 3 years of blowing-snow observations and associated meteorology along a 7 m mast at site D17 in coastal Adelie Land are presented. The observations are used to address three atmospheric-moisture issues related to the occurrence of blowing snow, a feature which largely affects many regions of Antarctica: ( 1) blowing-snow sublimation raises the moisture content of the surface atmosphere close to saturation, and atmospheric models and meteorological analyses that do not carry blowing-snow parameterizations are affected by a systematic dry bias; ( 2) while snowpack modelling with a parameterization of surface-snow erosion by wind can reproduce the variability of snow accumulation and ablation, ignoring the high levels of atmospheric-moisture content associated with blowing snow results in overestimating surface sublimation, affecting the energy budget of the snowpack; ( 3) the well-known profile method of calculating turbulent moisture fluxes is not applicable when blowing snow occurs, because moisture gradients are weak due to blowing-snow sublimation, and the impact of measurement uncertainties are strongly amplified in the case of strong winds.