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

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: Barral, H., Genthon, C., Trouvilliez, A., Brun, C., Amory, C.
• Other Authors: CNRS UMR 5183 LGGE GRENOBLE FRA, CEREMA DTECEMF LGCE BREST FRA, UNIVERSITE GRENOBLE ALPES UMR 5519 LEGI GRENOBLE FRA, IRSTEA GRENOBLE UR ETGR FRA
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: TRANSPORT DE NEIGE PAR LE VENT; SUBLIMATION; ACCUMULATION DE NEIGE; MANTEAU NEIGEUX; HUMIDITE; SURFACE MASS-BALANCE; KATABATIC WINDS; SCALAR TRANSFER; ICE-SHEET; MOISTURE; DRIFTING SNOW; Adelie Land; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://irsteadoc.irstea.fr/cemoa/PUB00043727

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.