DEPOSITION AND EROSION OF SNOW BY THE WIND.

• Main Author: Radok,Uwe
• Other Authors: COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB HANOVER N H
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1968
• Subjects: Snow; Ice and Permafrost; (*SNOW; MASS TRANSFER); TWO PHASE FLOW; WIND; DYNAMICS; DEPOSITION; EROSION; ANTARCTIC REGIONS; TEST METHODS; FLOW FIELDS; PARTICLE SIZE; VELOCITY; THICKNESS; SURFACE PROPERTIES; EQUATIONS OF MOTION; MATHEMATICAL MODELS; SALTATION; Antarctic; Antarc*; Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0680179; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0680179

The theories of uniform and non-uniform drifting snow are summarized with special emphasis on drift transport as a function of wind velocity. It is confirmed that the snow drift process involves a mobile surface layer of saltating particles, with a self-regulating thickness depending only on the surface stress and not on the snow concentration in the free air stream. It is shown to be a characteristic of snow (in contrast to sand or silt) that saltation and suspension drift occur side by side and that the latter reaches predominance as the wind velocity rises through the most common range of surface values. Theoretical reasons and observational evidence are produced for the view that deposition or erosion occurs on the snow surface during snow drift primarily as the result of mass flux convergence or divergence in the free air stream. (Author)