Simulations of blowing snow over Antarctica

• Main Authors: Gallée, H., Trouvilliez, A., Amory, C., Agosta, C., Genthon, C., Fettweis, X., Favier, V., Naaim Bouvet, F.
• Other Authors: UNIVERSITE DE GRENOBLE I UMR 5183 LGGE FRA, UNIVERSITE DE LIEGE BEL, IRSTEA GRENOBLE UR ETGR FRA, METEO FRANCE CNRM GAME UMR 3589 GRENOBLE FRA, SIERRA NEIGE THONES FRA
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: Irstea, ANENA, Meteo France 2013
• Subjects: TRANSPORT DE NEIGE PAR LE VENT; CLIMAT; MODELISATION; EROSION NIVALE; CLIMATE MODELING; SNOW TRANSPORT; WIND; SNOW PACK; CLIMATE; MODELLING; DRIFTING SNOW; Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; Antarctique*; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://irsteadoc.irstea.fr/cemoa/PUB00040294

The regional climate model MAR has been used to simulate transport of snow by the wind in Adélie Land, Antarctica, over a small domain (500 x 500 km2) and with a fine horizontal resolution (5 km). Simulation of wind and temperature in the Surface Boundary Layer (SBL) for January 2011 agrees with the observation, but the horizontal flux of blowing snow is underestimated. The set-up of the model over the whole antarctic ice sheet with an horizontal resolution of 40 km exhibits a contribution of the transport to the surface mass balance which that may be much larger than previously estimated.