A Preliminary Report on the Blowing Snow Observation using the Light Scattering in High Winds at Syowa Station, Antarctica

The present study describes the optical technique that has been developed to measure the variation of the spatial density of blowing snow particles suspended in air. The light source (the emitter) used was an incandescent lamp (12V, 20 W), and a diameter of light beam was 46mm. The receiver was used...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Shun'ichi KOBAYASHI, Kinken MAKINO
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Japanese
Published: National Institute of Polar Research 1975
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.15094/00007813
https://doaj.org/article/9c1d65027d6945bd9a7161345cc80f69
Description
Summary:The present study describes the optical technique that has been developed to measure the variation of the spatial density of blowing snow particles suspended in air. The light source (the emitter) used was an incandescent lamp (12V, 20 W), and a diameter of light beam was 46mm. The receiver was used a photo transister. This instruments were set in two levels of 1 m and 2m at Syowa Station (69° S, 39.5°E) in 1973. The transmission path of light were 4.5m in both case. If it is assumed that snow particles in blowing snow are the same size and the same shape, then the attenuation of a light beam should depend on the spatial density of blowing snow. The emprical correlations between the attenuation of a light beam (the transmittivity) and the mean visibility, and between the transmittivity and the drift flux were given for practical use. Observations made only in night time and during the period of high winds (also called Antarctic blizzards). For example, when the mean wind speed at 10m level was 30 m/s, the drift flux at 1 m level changed quickly between 80 and 400g/m^2・s.