The evolution of snow bedforms in the Colorado Front Range and the processes that shape them
When wind blows over dry snow, the snow surface self-organizes into bedforms such as dunes, ripples, snow waves, and sastrugi. These bedforms govern the interaction between wind, heat, and the snowpack, but thus far they have attracted few scientific studies. We present the first time-lapse document...
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Copernicus Publications
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1267-2019 https://www.the-cryosphere.net/13/1267/2019/tc-13-1267-2019.pdf https://doaj.org/article/87876056101f44c9812d51abf2c8c1f5 |
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:87876056101f44c9812d51abf2c8c1f5 2023-05-15T18:32:17+02:00 The evolution of snow bedforms in the Colorado Front Range and the processes that shape them K. Kochanski R. S. Anderson G. E. Tucker 2019-04-01 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1267-2019 https://www.the-cryosphere.net/13/1267/2019/tc-13-1267-2019.pdf https://doaj.org/article/87876056101f44c9812d51abf2c8c1f5 en eng Copernicus Publications doi:10.5194/tc-13-1267-2019 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://www.the-cryosphere.net/13/1267/2019/tc-13-1267-2019.pdf https://doaj.org/article/87876056101f44c9812d51abf2c8c1f5 undefined The Cryosphere, Vol 13, Pp 1267-1281 (2019) geo envir Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2019 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1267-2019 2023-01-22T19:16:21Z When wind blows over dry snow, the snow surface self-organizes into bedforms such as dunes, ripples, snow waves, and sastrugi. These bedforms govern the interaction between wind, heat, and the snowpack, but thus far they have attracted few scientific studies. We present the first time-lapse documentation of snow bedform movement and evolution, as part of a series of detailed observations of snow bedform movement in the Colorado Front Range. We show examples of the movement of snow ripples, snow waves, barchan dunes, snow steps, and sastrugi. We also introduce a previously undocumented bedform: the stealth dune. These observations show that (1) snow dunes accelerate minute-by-minute in response to gusts, (2) sastrugi and snow steps present steep edges to the wind and migrate downwind as those edges erode, (3) snow waves and dunes deposit layers of cohesive snow in their wake, and (4) bedforms evolve along complex cyclic trajectories. These observations provide the basis for new conceptual models of bedform evolution, based on the relative fluxes of snowfall, aeolian transport, erosion, and snow sintering across and into the surface. We find that many snow bedforms are generated by complex interactions between these processes. The prototypical example is the snow wave, in which deposition, sintering, and erosion occur in transverse stripes across the snowscape. Article in Journal/Newspaper The Cryosphere Unknown Sastrugi ENVELOPE(163.683,163.683,-74.617,-74.617) The Cryosphere 13 4 1267 1281 |
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geo envir |
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geo envir K. Kochanski R. S. Anderson G. E. Tucker The evolution of snow bedforms in the Colorado Front Range and the processes that shape them |
topic_facet |
geo envir |
description |
When wind blows over dry snow, the snow surface self-organizes into bedforms such as dunes, ripples, snow waves, and sastrugi. These bedforms govern the interaction between wind, heat, and the snowpack, but thus far they have attracted few scientific studies. We present the first time-lapse documentation of snow bedform movement and evolution, as part of a series of detailed observations of snow bedform movement in the Colorado Front Range. We show examples of the movement of snow ripples, snow waves, barchan dunes, snow steps, and sastrugi. We also introduce a previously undocumented bedform: the stealth dune. These observations show that (1) snow dunes accelerate minute-by-minute in response to gusts, (2) sastrugi and snow steps present steep edges to the wind and migrate downwind as those edges erode, (3) snow waves and dunes deposit layers of cohesive snow in their wake, and (4) bedforms evolve along complex cyclic trajectories. These observations provide the basis for new conceptual models of bedform evolution, based on the relative fluxes of snowfall, aeolian transport, erosion, and snow sintering across and into the surface. We find that many snow bedforms are generated by complex interactions between these processes. The prototypical example is the snow wave, in which deposition, sintering, and erosion occur in transverse stripes across the snowscape. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
K. Kochanski R. S. Anderson G. E. Tucker |
author_facet |
K. Kochanski R. S. Anderson G. E. Tucker |
author_sort |
K. Kochanski |
title |
The evolution of snow bedforms in the Colorado Front Range and the processes that shape them |
title_short |
The evolution of snow bedforms in the Colorado Front Range and the processes that shape them |
title_full |
The evolution of snow bedforms in the Colorado Front Range and the processes that shape them |
title_fullStr |
The evolution of snow bedforms in the Colorado Front Range and the processes that shape them |
title_full_unstemmed |
The evolution of snow bedforms in the Colorado Front Range and the processes that shape them |
title_sort |
evolution of snow bedforms in the colorado front range and the processes that shape them |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1267-2019 https://www.the-cryosphere.net/13/1267/2019/tc-13-1267-2019.pdf https://doaj.org/article/87876056101f44c9812d51abf2c8c1f5 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(163.683,163.683,-74.617,-74.617) |
geographic |
Sastrugi |
geographic_facet |
Sastrugi |
genre |
The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 13, Pp 1267-1281 (2019) |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-13-1267-2019 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://www.the-cryosphere.net/13/1267/2019/tc-13-1267-2019.pdf https://doaj.org/article/87876056101f44c9812d51abf2c8c1f5 |
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undefined |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1267-2019 |
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The Cryosphere |
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13 |
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4 |
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1267 |
op_container_end_page |
1281 |
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