Meltater Flow Through Snow from Plot to Baisn Scale

• Main Authors: Williams, Mark, Illangasekare, Tissa, Nelson, Caine, Pfeffer, Tad
• Other Authors: COLORADO UNIV AT BOULDER INST OF ARCTICAND ALPINE RESEARCH
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2000
• Subjects: Snow; Ice and Permafrost; Infrared Detection and Detectors; *SNOW COVER; *THAWING; WATER FLOW; NEAR INFRARED RADIATION; LAND ICE; LYSIMETERS; INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY; *MELTATER FLOW; Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA389434; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA389434

This final report for ARO grant DAAH04-96-1-0033, a project jointly funded by the National Science Foundation under separate award, (NSF-9526S75), summarizes the research accomplished during the project at the Niwot Ridge research site in the Colorado Front Range established by the PI and upgraded during the course of this project by an ARO research instrumentation award. Near-infrared photographs of melting snow were analyzed using a moving windows procedure that can be used to define the correlation lengths in the snow reflectance surface. Liquid water contents of surface snow were measured with a dielectric sensor at 0.5 m intervals on two 100x100m grids. A circular array of 16 snow lysimeters, each with a catchment area of 0.2 cubic meters, was operated for two winter seasons and larger arrays of 36 and 106 snow lysimeters were operated over the winters of 1999 and 2000, respectively. The characteristics of ice columns and frozen rills present during spring snowmelt were investigated. Snow and ice temperature profiles in normal and melting snowpacks were deterinined. The results of the research suggest that ice colums and rills that develop in the snowpack during snowmelt provide preferential flow paths for meltwaters and that a positive feedback system develps such that certain areas of the snowpack receive more meltwater than others as snow melt advances in time. Four students were supported on the grant and seven publications resulted from the project.