Spatiotemporal dynamics of snow erosion, deposition and horizontal mass flux

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Authors: PHILIP CRIVELLI, ENRICO PATERNA, MICHAEL LEHNING
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press 2019
• Subjects: mass-balance reconstruction; snow/ice surface processes; wind-blown snow; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Meteorology. Climatology; QC851-999; Journal of Glaciology
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2019.3; https://doaj.org/article/c2ba9feaaf8a42a9a84a28d3cf6fa24b

The quantification of snow transport, both in wind tunnels and the field, apply particle counting methods limited to punctual sampling of relatively small volumes. Particle counting can only capture horizontal mass fluxes, failing to measure snow erosion or deposition. Herein, we present a novel low-cost sensor tool, based on a Microsoft Kinect, adapted to capture snow surface changes during snow drifting at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions. In the wind tunnel setting of these experiments we observe a balance between erosion and deposition at low wind speeds, while erosion is dominant at higher wind speeds. Significant differences in power spectral densities of surface mass flux and horizontal particle mass flux are observed. We show that for the saltation-length-scale parameter λ = 1, the integrated particle flux can be used to estimate the total surface mass flux in the wind tunnel. This provides an important basis to interpret mass flux measurements in the field.