Snow Transport Over Mountain Crests

Föhn, Paul M. B.

doi:10.1017/s0022143000010984

Cited by 49 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…During a precIpItation event, this snow drifts with the prevailing easterly winds at crest elevation and is thus deposited in the upper parts of the lee side (Fohn, 1980;Fohn and Meister, 1983). This mechanism is confirmed by observations where slopes on both sides of ridges show different surface conditions.…”

Section: Snow-deposition Patternsupporting

confidence: 62%

Mass Balance and Thermal Regime of Laika Ice Cap, Coburg Island, N.W.T., Canada

Blatter¹,

Kappenberger²

1988

J. Glaciol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ABSTRACT. During the North Water Project of the late F. Muller, glaciological studies were carried out on Laika ice cap. In addition to the main climatological investigations, surveying, mapping, mass-balance studies, and englacial temperature measurements were carried out. The massbalance distribution is strongly determined by the orography. Strong westerly winds erode and transport snow from exposed surfaces, whereas prevailing easterly winds, during precipitation , deposit snow on lee slopes. The balance is negative under the present climate. The history of the glacier-tongue geometry is reconstructed using geomorphological observations and photogrammetric mapping for 1959 and 1971. Englacial temperature measurements revealed a finite layer of temperate basal ice in the ablation zone. The temperature distribution in the accumulation area around the summit of the ice cap is not stationary.

show abstract

Section: Snow-deposition Patternsupporting

confidence: 62%

Mass Balance and Thermal Regime of Laika Ice Cap, Coburg Island, N.W.T., Canada

Blatter¹,

Kappenberger²

1988

J. Glaciol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thus, there are marked differences in energy and moisture fluxes over snow-covered and snow-free surfaces, which have implications for evapotranspiration, permafrost, and glaciers. Snowpack and snowcover characteristics in alpine zones are strongly influenced by wind through the action of wind in entraining, transporting and sublimating snow (Dyunin and Kotlyakov, 1980;Föhn, 1980;Schmidt et al, 1984;Meister, 1989;.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the importance of sublimation to an alpine snow mass balance in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

MacDonald

Pomeroy

Pietroniro

2010

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

123

130

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract.A modelling study was undertaken to evaluate the contribution of sublimation to an alpine snow mass balance in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Snow redistribution and sublimation by wind, snowpack sublimation and snowmelt were simulated for two winters over an alpine ridge transect located in the Canada Rocky Mountains. The resulting snowcover regimes were compared to those from manual snow surveys. Simulations were performed using physically based blowing snow (PBSM) and snowpack ablation (SNOBAL) models. A hydrological response unit (HRU)-based spatial discretization was used rather than a more computationally expensive fully-distributed one. The HRUs were set up to follow an aerodynamic sequence, whereby eroded snow was transported from windswept, upwind HRUs to drift accumulating, downwind HRUs. That snow redistribution by wind can be adequately simulated in computationally efficient HRUs over this ridge has important implications for representing snow transport in large-scale hydrology models and land surface schemes. Alpine snow sublimation losses, in particular blowing snow sublimation losses, were significant. Snow mass losses to sublimation as a percentage of cumulative snowfall were estimated to be 20-32% with the blowing snow sublimation loss amounting to 17-19% of cumulative snowfall. This estimate is considered to be a conservative estimate of the blowing snow sublimation loss in the Canadian Rocky Mountains because the study transect is located in the low alpine zone where the topography is Correspondence to: J. W. Pomeroy (john.pomeroy@usask.ca) more moderate than the high alpine zone and windflow separation was not observed. An examination of the suitability of PBSM's sublimation estimates in this environment and of the importance of estimating blowing snow sublimation on the simulated snow accumulation regime was conducted by omitting sublimation calculations. Snow accumulation in HRUs was overestimated by 30% when neglecting blowing snow sublimation calculations.

show abstract

“…The maximum recorded wind speed was used because the wind at the start zones was likely higher than those at the weather station. Following Föhn (1980), the wind snow loading potential (ΔH in cm d −1 ) was calculated:…”

Section: Methods and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Naturally triggered persistent deep slab avalanches in western Canada Part I: avalanche characteristics and weather trends from weather stations

Conlan

Jamieson

2016

J. Glaciol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ABSTRACT. A database of difficult-to-forecast natural persistent deep slab avalanches was analyzed to determine thresholds for parameters that contribute to their release in western Canada. The database included avalanche observations and weather station data. The avalanches were grouped based on their primary cause-of-release, either precipitation loading, wind loading, solar warming or air temperature warming using a multivariate classification tree, which first split using a solar warming parameter. The precipitation group had a median 24 h snowfall of 15 cm and 3 d snowfall of 38 cm at weather stations, mostly at or below treeline. These amounts were likely closer between 20-30 and 50-80 cm at alpine start zones. The wind loading group experienced the most wind-transported snow potential. The solar warming group had predicted solar warming of 5.2°C, 10 cm into the snowpack, on the days of release. The air temperature warming group experienced the highest median maximum air temperature (5°C) on the days of release. These thresholds may be useful to forecast the likelihood of similar avalanches with experienced-based forecasting or with decision aids, although many false alarms are possible. A companion paper, Part II, relates weather model data to avalanche occurrences.

show abstract

Snow Transport Over Mountain Crests

Cited by 49 publications

References 3 publications

Mass Balance and Thermal Regime of Laika Ice Cap, Coburg Island, N.W.T., Canada

Mass Balance and Thermal Regime of Laika Ice Cap, Coburg Island, N.W.T., Canada

On the importance of sublimation to an alpine snow mass balance in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

Naturally triggered persistent deep slab avalanches in western Canada Part I: avalanche characteristics and weather trends from weather stations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About