Surface and snowdrift sublimation at Princess Elisabeth station, East Antarctica
In the near-coastal regions of Antarctica, a significant fraction of the snow precipitating onto the surface is removed again through sublimation – either directly from the surface or from drifting snow particles. Meteorological observations from an Automatic Weather Station (AWS) near the Belgian r...
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ftunivutrecht:oai:dspace.library.uu.nl:1874/257457 2023-07-23T04:14:28+02:00 Surface and snowdrift sublimation at Princess Elisabeth station, East Antarctica Thiery, W. Gorodetskaya, I.V. Bintanja, R. van Lipzig, N.P.M. van den Broeke, M.R. Reijmer, C.H. Kuipers Munneke, P. Marine and Atmospheric Research Dep Natuurkunde Sub Dynamics Meteorology 2012 text/plain https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/257457 en eng 1994-0416 https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/257457 info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess Article 2012 ftunivutrecht 2023-07-02T00:34:05Z In the near-coastal regions of Antarctica, a significant fraction of the snow precipitating onto the surface is removed again through sublimation – either directly from the surface or from drifting snow particles. Meteorological observations from an Automatic Weather Station (AWS) near the Belgian research station Princess Elisabeth in Dronning Maud Land, East-Antarctica, are used to study surface and snowdrift sublimation and to assess their impacts on both the surface mass balance and the surface energy balance during 2009 and 2010. Comparison to three other AWSs in Dronning Maud Land with 11 to 13 yr of observations shows that sublimation has a significant influence on the surface mass balance at katabatic locations by removing 10–23% of their total precipitation, but at the same time reveals anomalously low surface and snowdrift sublimation rates at Princess Elisabeth (17mmw.e. yr−1 compared to 42mmw.e. yr−1 at Svea Cross and 52mmw.e. yr−1 at Wasa/Aboa). This anomaly is attributed to local topography, which shields the station from strong katabatic influence, and, therefore, on the one hand allows for a strong surface inversion to persist throughout most of the year and on the other hand causes a lower probability of occurrence of intermediately strong winds. This wind speed class turns out to contribute most to the total snowdrift sublimation mass flux, given its ability to lift a high number of particles while still allowing for considerable undersaturation. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Dronning Maud Land East Antarctica Utrecht University Repository Aboa ENVELOPE(-13.417,-13.417,-73.050,-73.050) Dronning Maud Land East Antarctica Svea ENVELOPE(-11.217,-11.217,-74.583,-74.583) Wasa ENVELOPE(-13.408,-13.408,-73.043,-73.043) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Utrecht University Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivutrecht |
language |
English |
description |
In the near-coastal regions of Antarctica, a significant fraction of the snow precipitating onto the surface is removed again through sublimation – either directly from the surface or from drifting snow particles. Meteorological observations from an Automatic Weather Station (AWS) near the Belgian research station Princess Elisabeth in Dronning Maud Land, East-Antarctica, are used to study surface and snowdrift sublimation and to assess their impacts on both the surface mass balance and the surface energy balance during 2009 and 2010. Comparison to three other AWSs in Dronning Maud Land with 11 to 13 yr of observations shows that sublimation has a significant influence on the surface mass balance at katabatic locations by removing 10–23% of their total precipitation, but at the same time reveals anomalously low surface and snowdrift sublimation rates at Princess Elisabeth (17mmw.e. yr−1 compared to 42mmw.e. yr−1 at Svea Cross and 52mmw.e. yr−1 at Wasa/Aboa). This anomaly is attributed to local topography, which shields the station from strong katabatic influence, and, therefore, on the one hand allows for a strong surface inversion to persist throughout most of the year and on the other hand causes a lower probability of occurrence of intermediately strong winds. This wind speed class turns out to contribute most to the total snowdrift sublimation mass flux, given its ability to lift a high number of particles while still allowing for considerable undersaturation. |
author2 |
Marine and Atmospheric Research Dep Natuurkunde Sub Dynamics Meteorology |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Thiery, W. Gorodetskaya, I.V. Bintanja, R. van Lipzig, N.P.M. van den Broeke, M.R. Reijmer, C.H. Kuipers Munneke, P. |
spellingShingle |
Thiery, W. Gorodetskaya, I.V. Bintanja, R. van Lipzig, N.P.M. van den Broeke, M.R. Reijmer, C.H. Kuipers Munneke, P. Surface and snowdrift sublimation at Princess Elisabeth station, East Antarctica |
author_facet |
Thiery, W. Gorodetskaya, I.V. Bintanja, R. van Lipzig, N.P.M. van den Broeke, M.R. Reijmer, C.H. Kuipers Munneke, P. |
author_sort |
Thiery, W. |
title |
Surface and snowdrift sublimation at Princess Elisabeth station, East Antarctica |
title_short |
Surface and snowdrift sublimation at Princess Elisabeth station, East Antarctica |
title_full |
Surface and snowdrift sublimation at Princess Elisabeth station, East Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Surface and snowdrift sublimation at Princess Elisabeth station, East Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Surface and snowdrift sublimation at Princess Elisabeth station, East Antarctica |
title_sort |
surface and snowdrift sublimation at princess elisabeth station, east antarctica |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/257457 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-13.417,-13.417,-73.050,-73.050) ENVELOPE(-11.217,-11.217,-74.583,-74.583) ENVELOPE(-13.408,-13.408,-73.043,-73.043) |
geographic |
Aboa Dronning Maud Land East Antarctica Svea Wasa |
geographic_facet |
Aboa Dronning Maud Land East Antarctica Svea Wasa |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Dronning Maud Land East Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Dronning Maud Land East Antarctica |
op_relation |
1994-0416 https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/257457 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
_version_ |
1772184983805362176 |