Effects of Snowfall on Drifting Snow and Wind Structure Near a Surface

Supplementary material to "The evolution of snow bedforms in the Colorado Front Range and the processes that shape them"

“…Airborne particles of sand or snow capture momentum from the air. When they strike the Earth, they launch further grains into the air (Anderson and Haff, 1988;Bagnold, 1941;Kobayashi, 1972;Schmidt, 1986). This process, known as saltation, is the primary method of momentum and energy transfer from the wind to a granular bed (Anderson and Haff, 1988;Schmidt, 1986).…”

“…When they strike the Earth, they launch further grains into the air (Anderson and Haff, 1988;Bagnold, 1941;Kobayashi, 1972;Schmidt, 1986). This process, known as saltation, is the primary method of momentum and energy transfer from the wind to a granular bed (Anderson and Haff, 1988;Schmidt, 1986). Saltation is initiated above a certain windspeed at which snow from the surface is entrained (Li and Pomeroy, 1997), and has considerable momentum thereafter.…”

“…Finally, the impact forces that drive the motion of wind-blown snow also fragment snow crystals (Nemoto et al, 2014).…”