Snowmelt Increase Through Albedo Reduction

Due to changing surface conditions, albedo decreases naturally as snow ages. The details of the melting processes have been investigated for some years and much is known about the effect of each process and the interactions among them. Albedo has attracted a lot of attention because of recent intere...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Colbeck, Samuel C.
Other Authors: COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB HANOVER NH
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 1988
Subjects:
Snow
Ice and Permafrost
*SNOW
*ALBEDO
*MELTING
REDUCTION
DUST
COLORANTS
SURFACE PROPERTIES
ABLATION
FEEDBACK
AGING(MATERIALS)
OPTIMIZATION
DARKNESS
SNOW DUSTING
DARKENING AGENTS
PE61102A
WU004
Ice
permafrost
Online Access:http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA204523
http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA204523
Description
Summary:Due to changing surface conditions, albedo decreases naturally as snow ages. The details of the melting processes have been investigated for some years and much is known about the effect of each process and the interactions among them. Albedo has attracted a lot of attention because of recent interest in snow-climate feedback, and the reduction in albedo by darkening agents has been studied and practiced extensively. Although much is known about albedo reduction, the optimum design for a field program to enhance snow melting requires too much information to be easily achievable. The relevant snow properties and processes are described here along with some field observations. Much research must still be done to provide guidelines for the use of snow darkening agents in any particular environment. Keywords: Ablation; Snow dusting.

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