Observations of capillary barriers and preferential flow in layered snow during cold laboratory experiments
Data of liquid water flow around a capillary barrier in snow are still limited. To gain insight into this process, we carried out observations of dyed water infiltration in layered snow at 0 °C during cold laboratory experiments. We considered three different finer-over-coarser textures and three di...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2016
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2013-2016 https://www.the-cryosphere.net/10/2013/2016/tc-10-2013-2016.pdf https://doaj.org/article/f9b01cd59f5c4d70a6690d955681bbb0 |
id |
fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:f9b01cd59f5c4d70a6690d955681bbb0 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:f9b01cd59f5c4d70a6690d955681bbb0 2023-05-15T18:32:18+02:00 Observations of capillary barriers and preferential flow in layered snow during cold laboratory experiments F. Avanzi H. Hirashima S. Yamaguchi T. Katsushima C. De Michele 2016-09-01 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2013-2016 https://www.the-cryosphere.net/10/2013/2016/tc-10-2013-2016.pdf https://doaj.org/article/f9b01cd59f5c4d70a6690d955681bbb0 en eng Copernicus Publications doi:10.5194/tc-10-2013-2016 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://www.the-cryosphere.net/10/2013/2016/tc-10-2013-2016.pdf https://doaj.org/article/f9b01cd59f5c4d70a6690d955681bbb0 undefined The Cryosphere, Vol 10, Pp 2013-2026 (2016) geo envir Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2016 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2013-2016 2023-01-22T16:37:48Z Data of liquid water flow around a capillary barrier in snow are still limited. To gain insight into this process, we carried out observations of dyed water infiltration in layered snow at 0 °C during cold laboratory experiments. We considered three different finer-over-coarser textures and three different water input rates. By means of visual inspection, horizontal sectioning, and measurements of liquid water content (LWC), capillary barriers and associated preferential flow were characterized. The flow dynamics of each sample were also simulated solving the Richards equation within the 1-D multi-layer physically based snow cover model SNOWPACK. Results revealed that capillary barriers and preferential flow are relevant processes ruling the speed of water infiltration in stratified snow. Both are marked by a high degree of spatial variability at centimeter scale and complex 3-D patterns. During unsteady percolation of water, observed peaks in bulk volumetric LWC at the interface reached ∼ 33–36 vol % when the upper layer was composed by fine snow (grain size smaller than 0.5 mm). However, LWC might locally be greater due to the observed heterogeneity in the process. Spatial variability in water transmission increases with grain size, whereas we did not observe a systematic dependency on water input rate for samples containing fine snow. The comparison between observed and simulated LWC profiles revealed that the implementation of the Richards equation reproduces the existence of a capillary barrier for all observed cases and yields a good agreement with observed peaks in LWC at the interface between layers. Article in Journal/Newspaper The Cryosphere Unknown The Cryosphere 10 5 2013 2026 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Unknown |
op_collection_id |
fttriple |
language |
English |
topic |
geo envir |
spellingShingle |
geo envir F. Avanzi H. Hirashima S. Yamaguchi T. Katsushima C. De Michele Observations of capillary barriers and preferential flow in layered snow during cold laboratory experiments |
topic_facet |
geo envir |
description |
Data of liquid water flow around a capillary barrier in snow are still limited. To gain insight into this process, we carried out observations of dyed water infiltration in layered snow at 0 °C during cold laboratory experiments. We considered three different finer-over-coarser textures and three different water input rates. By means of visual inspection, horizontal sectioning, and measurements of liquid water content (LWC), capillary barriers and associated preferential flow were characterized. The flow dynamics of each sample were also simulated solving the Richards equation within the 1-D multi-layer physically based snow cover model SNOWPACK. Results revealed that capillary barriers and preferential flow are relevant processes ruling the speed of water infiltration in stratified snow. Both are marked by a high degree of spatial variability at centimeter scale and complex 3-D patterns. During unsteady percolation of water, observed peaks in bulk volumetric LWC at the interface reached ∼ 33–36 vol % when the upper layer was composed by fine snow (grain size smaller than 0.5 mm). However, LWC might locally be greater due to the observed heterogeneity in the process. Spatial variability in water transmission increases with grain size, whereas we did not observe a systematic dependency on water input rate for samples containing fine snow. The comparison between observed and simulated LWC profiles revealed that the implementation of the Richards equation reproduces the existence of a capillary barrier for all observed cases and yields a good agreement with observed peaks in LWC at the interface between layers. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
F. Avanzi H. Hirashima S. Yamaguchi T. Katsushima C. De Michele |
author_facet |
F. Avanzi H. Hirashima S. Yamaguchi T. Katsushima C. De Michele |
author_sort |
F. Avanzi |
title |
Observations of capillary barriers and preferential flow in layered snow during cold laboratory experiments |
title_short |
Observations of capillary barriers and preferential flow in layered snow during cold laboratory experiments |
title_full |
Observations of capillary barriers and preferential flow in layered snow during cold laboratory experiments |
title_fullStr |
Observations of capillary barriers and preferential flow in layered snow during cold laboratory experiments |
title_full_unstemmed |
Observations of capillary barriers and preferential flow in layered snow during cold laboratory experiments |
title_sort |
observations of capillary barriers and preferential flow in layered snow during cold laboratory experiments |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2013-2016 https://www.the-cryosphere.net/10/2013/2016/tc-10-2013-2016.pdf https://doaj.org/article/f9b01cd59f5c4d70a6690d955681bbb0 |
genre |
The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 10, Pp 2013-2026 (2016) |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-10-2013-2016 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://www.the-cryosphere.net/10/2013/2016/tc-10-2013-2016.pdf https://doaj.org/article/f9b01cd59f5c4d70a6690d955681bbb0 |
op_rights |
undefined |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2013-2016 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
2013 |
op_container_end_page |
2026 |
_version_ |
1766216410470547456 |