The Impact of Diffusive Water Vapor Transport on Snow Profiles in Deep and Shallow Snow Covers and on Sea Ice
Water vapor transport has been highlighted as a critical process in Arctic snowpacks, shaping the snow cover structure in terms of density, thermal conductivity, and temperature profile among others. Here, we present an attempt to describe the thermally-induced vertical diffusion of water vapor in t...
Published in: | Frontiers in Earth Science |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:2698fbcb1ed64f4abe93cd38aeb388d7 2023-05-15T14:01:49+02:00 The Impact of Diffusive Water Vapor Transport on Snow Profiles in Deep and Shallow Snow Covers and on Sea Ice Mahdi Jafari Isabelle Gouttevin Margaux Couttet Nander Wever Adrien Michel Varun Sharma Leonard Rossmann Nina Maass Marcel Nicolaus Michael Lehning 2020-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.00249 https://doaj.org/article/2698fbcb1ed64f4abe93cd38aeb388d7 EN eng Frontiers Media S.A. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/feart.2020.00249/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-6463 2296-6463 doi:10.3389/feart.2020.00249 https://doaj.org/article/2698fbcb1ed64f4abe93cd38aeb388d7 Frontiers in Earth Science, Vol 8 (2020) diffusive water vapor flux phase change snowpack model snow on sea ice snow metamorphism mass transfer coefficient Science Q article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.00249 2022-12-31T11:23:21Z Water vapor transport has been highlighted as a critical process in Arctic snowpacks, shaping the snow cover structure in terms of density, thermal conductivity, and temperature profile among others. Here, we present an attempt to describe the thermally-induced vertical diffusion of water vapor in the snow cover and its effects of the snowpack structure using the SNOWPACK model. Convection, that may also constitute a significant part of vapor transport, is not addressed. Assuming saturated conditions at the upper boundary of the snowpack and as initial condition, the vapor flux between snow layers is expressed by a 1-dimensional transient diffusion equation, which is solved with a finite difference routine. The implications on the snowpack of this vertical diffusive flux, are analyzed using metrics such as the cumulative density change due to diffusive vapor transport, the degree of over- or undersaturation, the instantaneous snow density change rate, and the percentage of snow density change. We present results for four different regions sampling the space of natural snow cover variability: Alpine, Subarctic, Arctic, and Antarctic sea ice. The largest impact of diffusive water vapor transport is observed in snow on sea ice in the Weddell Sea and the shallow Arctic snowpack. The simulations show significant density reductions upon inclusion of diffusive water vapor transport: cumulative density changes from diffusive vapor transport can reach −62 and −66 kg m−3 for the bottom layer in the shallow Arctic snowpack and snow on sea ice, respectively. For comparison, in deeper snow covers, they rarely exceed −40 kg m−3. This leads to changes in density for shallow snowpacks at the soil-snow interface in the range of −5 to −21%. Mirroring the density decease at depth is a thicker deposition layer above it with increase in density around 7.5%. Similarly, for the sea ice, the density decreased at the sea ice-snow interface by −20%. We acknowledge that vapor transport by diffusion may in some snow covers—such as in thin ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Sea ice Subarctic Weddell Sea Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Antarctic Arctic Weddell Weddell Sea Frontiers in Earth Science 8 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
diffusive water vapor flux phase change snowpack model snow on sea ice snow metamorphism mass transfer coefficient Science Q |
spellingShingle |
diffusive water vapor flux phase change snowpack model snow on sea ice snow metamorphism mass transfer coefficient Science Q Mahdi Jafari Isabelle Gouttevin Margaux Couttet Nander Wever Adrien Michel Varun Sharma Leonard Rossmann Nina Maass Marcel Nicolaus Michael Lehning The Impact of Diffusive Water Vapor Transport on Snow Profiles in Deep and Shallow Snow Covers and on Sea Ice |
topic_facet |
diffusive water vapor flux phase change snowpack model snow on sea ice snow metamorphism mass transfer coefficient Science Q |
description |
Water vapor transport has been highlighted as a critical process in Arctic snowpacks, shaping the snow cover structure in terms of density, thermal conductivity, and temperature profile among others. Here, we present an attempt to describe the thermally-induced vertical diffusion of water vapor in the snow cover and its effects of the snowpack structure using the SNOWPACK model. Convection, that may also constitute a significant part of vapor transport, is not addressed. Assuming saturated conditions at the upper boundary of the snowpack and as initial condition, the vapor flux between snow layers is expressed by a 1-dimensional transient diffusion equation, which is solved with a finite difference routine. The implications on the snowpack of this vertical diffusive flux, are analyzed using metrics such as the cumulative density change due to diffusive vapor transport, the degree of over- or undersaturation, the instantaneous snow density change rate, and the percentage of snow density change. We present results for four different regions sampling the space of natural snow cover variability: Alpine, Subarctic, Arctic, and Antarctic sea ice. The largest impact of diffusive water vapor transport is observed in snow on sea ice in the Weddell Sea and the shallow Arctic snowpack. The simulations show significant density reductions upon inclusion of diffusive water vapor transport: cumulative density changes from diffusive vapor transport can reach −62 and −66 kg m−3 for the bottom layer in the shallow Arctic snowpack and snow on sea ice, respectively. For comparison, in deeper snow covers, they rarely exceed −40 kg m−3. This leads to changes in density for shallow snowpacks at the soil-snow interface in the range of −5 to −21%. Mirroring the density decease at depth is a thicker deposition layer above it with increase in density around 7.5%. Similarly, for the sea ice, the density decreased at the sea ice-snow interface by −20%. We acknowledge that vapor transport by diffusion may in some snow covers—such as in thin ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mahdi Jafari Isabelle Gouttevin Margaux Couttet Nander Wever Adrien Michel Varun Sharma Leonard Rossmann Nina Maass Marcel Nicolaus Michael Lehning |
author_facet |
Mahdi Jafari Isabelle Gouttevin Margaux Couttet Nander Wever Adrien Michel Varun Sharma Leonard Rossmann Nina Maass Marcel Nicolaus Michael Lehning |
author_sort |
Mahdi Jafari |
title |
The Impact of Diffusive Water Vapor Transport on Snow Profiles in Deep and Shallow Snow Covers and on Sea Ice |
title_short |
The Impact of Diffusive Water Vapor Transport on Snow Profiles in Deep and Shallow Snow Covers and on Sea Ice |
title_full |
The Impact of Diffusive Water Vapor Transport on Snow Profiles in Deep and Shallow Snow Covers and on Sea Ice |
title_fullStr |
The Impact of Diffusive Water Vapor Transport on Snow Profiles in Deep and Shallow Snow Covers and on Sea Ice |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Impact of Diffusive Water Vapor Transport on Snow Profiles in Deep and Shallow Snow Covers and on Sea Ice |
title_sort |
impact of diffusive water vapor transport on snow profiles in deep and shallow snow covers and on sea ice |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.00249 https://doaj.org/article/2698fbcb1ed64f4abe93cd38aeb388d7 |
geographic |
Antarctic Arctic Weddell Weddell Sea |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Arctic Weddell Weddell Sea |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Sea ice Subarctic Weddell Sea |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Sea ice Subarctic Weddell Sea |
op_source |
Frontiers in Earth Science, Vol 8 (2020) |
op_relation |
https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/feart.2020.00249/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-6463 2296-6463 doi:10.3389/feart.2020.00249 https://doaj.org/article/2698fbcb1ed64f4abe93cd38aeb388d7 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.00249 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Earth Science |
container_volume |
8 |
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1766271855462711296 |