Blowing snow in coastal Adélie Land, Antarctica: three atmospheric-moisture issues
A total of 3 years of blowing-snow observations and associated meteorology along a 7 m mast at site D17 in coastal Adélie 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...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:tc25161 2023-05-15T13:54:27+02:00 Blowing snow in coastal Adélie Land, Antarctica: three atmospheric-moisture issues Barral, H. Genthon, C. Trouvilliez, A. Brun, C. Amory, C. 2018-09-27 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1905-2014 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/8/1905/2014/ eng eng doi:10.5194/tc-8-1905-2014 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/8/1905/2014/ eISSN: 1994-0424 Text 2018 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1905-2014 2020-07-20T16:24:54Z A total of 3 years of blowing-snow observations and associated meteorology along a 7 m mast at site D17 in coastal Adélie 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. Text Antarc* Antarctica Copernicus Publications: E-Journals The Cryosphere 8 5 1905 1919 |
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Open Polar |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
A total of 3 years of blowing-snow observations and associated meteorology along a 7 m mast at site D17 in coastal Adélie 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. |
format |
Text |
author |
Barral, H. Genthon, C. Trouvilliez, A. Brun, C. Amory, C. |
spellingShingle |
Barral, H. Genthon, C. Trouvilliez, A. Brun, C. Amory, C. Blowing snow in coastal Adélie Land, Antarctica: three atmospheric-moisture issues |
author_facet |
Barral, H. Genthon, C. Trouvilliez, A. Brun, C. Amory, C. |
author_sort |
Barral, H. |
title |
Blowing snow in coastal Adélie Land, Antarctica: three atmospheric-moisture issues |
title_short |
Blowing snow in coastal Adélie Land, Antarctica: three atmospheric-moisture issues |
title_full |
Blowing snow in coastal Adélie Land, Antarctica: three atmospheric-moisture issues |
title_fullStr |
Blowing snow in coastal Adélie Land, Antarctica: three atmospheric-moisture issues |
title_full_unstemmed |
Blowing snow in coastal Adélie Land, Antarctica: three atmospheric-moisture issues |
title_sort |
blowing snow in coastal adélie land, antarctica: three atmospheric-moisture issues |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1905-2014 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/8/1905/2014/ |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica |
op_source |
eISSN: 1994-0424 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-8-1905-2014 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/8/1905/2014/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1905-2014 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
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8 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
1905 |
op_container_end_page |
1919 |
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1766260359236157440 |