Impact Of Snow Drift On The Antarctic Ice Sheet Surface Mass Balance: Possible Sensitivity To Snow-Surface Properties

A mesoscale atmospheric numerical model is coupled with a physically based snow-pack model and with a snow-drift model. The snow model is verified for the French Alps by comparing its simulations to observations performed at the Col de Porte in the Chartreuse Massif. The snow erosion threshold depends on snow-pack properties such as density, dendricity, sphericity and particle size. The atmospheric turbulence scheme is modified in order to take into account stabilization effects due to airborne blown snow particles. In particular, vertically integrated stability functions for the stable boundary layer are completed by including the threshold friction velocity for snow erosion. The snow-drift model is calibrated by simulating the conditions observed during the Byrd snow project, held in West Antarctica in 1962. Finally, sensitivity experiments to the snow-surface properties show the importance of their accurate representation when modelling the contribution of deflation to the Antarctic surface mass balance.     

The Electric Field During Blowing Snow Events

A model is proposed to determine the electric field strength in blowing snow. To test this model, the electric field strength was measured over an 80-day period during the Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study (CASES) in 2004. The electric field strength at 0.5 m correlates well with the difference between 10-m wind speed and a threshold wind speed, although there is a large amount of variation between the electric fields generated during different blowing snow events. Although the model predicts that the electric field should be proportional to particle number density, the correlation is weak. The correlation of wind speed and electric field strength suggests that particles become charged primarily due to friction-induced temperature difference as they impact upon the surface. The strength of the electric field is likely influenced by a large number of other factors that are difficult to measure. However, the model predicts electric field strengths in excess of 25 kV m⁻¹ near the surface, which would have a significant effect on particle motion.     

A New Triple-Moment Blowing Snow Model

This paper presents a new triple-moment blowing snow model PIEKTUK-T by including predictive equations for three moments of the gamma size distribution. Specifically, predictive equations for the total number concentration, total mass mixing ratio, and total radar reflectivity for blowing snow are included. Tests in the context of idealized experiments and observed case studies demonstrate that the triple-moment model performs better than the double-moment model PIEKTUK-D in predicting the evolution of the number concentration, mixing ratio, shape parameter, and visibility in blowing snow, provided that the fall velocities for the total number concentration, mass mixing ratio, and radar reflectivity are weighted by the same order of the respective moments in both models. The power law relationship between the radar reflectivity factor and particle extinction coefficient found in PIEKTUK-T is consistent with one observed in snow storms. Coupling of the triple-moment blowing snow model to an atmospheric model would allow realistic studies of the effect of blowing snow on weather and climate.     

Spatial Statistics Of Windflow And Blowing-Snow Fluxes Over Complex Topography

A linear theory is used to model windflow over a tundra landscape, taken as an example of complex topography. The autocorrelation between gradients at different points in this landscape has an exponential dependence on separation, characterized by a correlation length. Areal variances of simulated windspeeds are proportional to the variance of the topographic gradient. Simulations with synthetic topographies having the same correlation structure show that the constants of proportionality in these relationships depend on the correlation length. Statistics of snow sublimation and transport calculated using simulated windspeed distributions in a distributed blowing-snow model are found to be in good agreement for real and synthetic topographies.     

Environmental controls on blowing dust direction at lubbock,Texas, U.S.A.

Blowing dust is a common phenomenon at Lubbock, Texas, on the Southern High Plains. The directional variability of blowing dust estimated with the ‘sand rose’ technique, using wind speed and direction data, suggest that dust transport occurs from all directions. An empirical method of determining directional variability using meteorological data on visibility reductions due to blowing dust, however, indicates that most dust comes from the west and south-west. In addition to wind speed and direction, other environmental factors must be considered in explaining the spatial pattern of dust transport. Soil erodibility is variable in the region, with the most extensive area of highly erodible soils to the west and south-west of Lubbock. Rangeland dominates land use to the east, while agriculture is extensive to the north, west and south. Local farming techniques leave bare soil during the winter and spring, when most airborne dust is produced and also when strong winds are common from the west and south-west. Soil moisture is lowest to the southwest of Lubbock, which leads to a decrease in soil structure and an increase in the potential for wind erosion in that direction. Relative humidities affect threshold wind speeds and are lowest during March and April, when winds are common from the west and south-west. The spatial and seasonal variability and interactions between many factors, both natural and human-controlled, must therefore considered in explaining the directional variability of aeolian sediment transport at Lubbock.     

A Bulk Blowing Snow Model

We present in this paper a simple and computationally efficient numerical model that depicts a column of sublimating, blowing snow. This bulk model predicts the mixing ratio of suspended snow by solving an equation that considers the diffusion, settling and sublimation of blowing snow in a time-dependent mode. The bulk model results compare very well with those of a previous spectral version of the model, while increasing its computational efficiency by a factor of about one hundred. This will allow the use of the model to estimate the effects of blowing snow upon the atmospheric boundary layer and to the mass balance of such regions as the Mackenzie River Basin of Canada.     

南极长城站雪暴的个例研究

综合使用NCEP分析、站点观测、地面天气图及卫星云图等资料,从地面和高低空天气形势、气象要素变化、大气垂直和水平结构等方面对南极长城站的一次强雪暴天气过程进行了分析研究。该雪暴发生于2006年8月29日,极大风速33.3ms-1,最低水平能见度不足10m。分析认为本次过程发生在“南高北低”的天气形势下,“南高北低”引发的偏东大风是雪暴发生的先决条件。来自南极内陆冷空气的低空东风急流给长城站带来了显著的降温、减湿,使本次雪暴带有明显的低温低湿特征。高空暖平流输送为雪暴的发生提供了充足的水汽条件。中低层深厚的气旋性涡度,高空辐散、低层辐合的散度场配置和强烈的上升运动导致高层暖湿气流和低层干冷气流的充分混合,是导致长城站出现强降雪、进而引发雪暴的动力原因。雪暴后期伴有明显的低层逆温,其本质是上暖下冷的气团垂直结构,它对雪暴后期的维持可能起着重要作用。     

An Intercomparison Among Four Models Of Blowing Snow

Four one-dimensional, time-dependent blowing snow models areintercompared. These include three spectral models, PIEKTUK-T,WINDBLAST, SNOWSTORM, and the bulk version of PIEKTUK-T,PIEKTUK-B. Although the four models are based on common physicalconcepts, they have been developed by different research groups. Thestructure of the models, numerical methods, meteorological field treatmentand the parameterization schemes may be different. Under an agreed standardcondition, the four models generally give similar results for the thermodynamic effects of blowing snow sublimation on the atmospheric boundary layer, including an increase of relative humidity and a decrease of the ambient temperature due to blowing snow sublimation. Relative humidity predicted by SNOWSTORM is lower than the predictions of the other models, which leads to a larger sublimation rate in SNOWSTORM. All four models demonstrate that sublimation rates in a column of blowing snow have a single maximum in time, illustrating self-limitation of the sublimation process of blowing snow. However, estimation of the eddy diffusioncoefficient for momentum (K_m), and thereby the diffusion coefficients for moisture (K_w) and for heat (K_h), has a significant influence on the process. Sensitivitytests with PIEKTUK-T show that the sublimation rate can be approximately constant with time after an initial phase, if K_m is a linear function with height. In order to match the model results with blowing snow observations, some parameters in the standard run, such as settling velocity of blowing snow particles in these models, may need to be changed to more practical values.     

The Thermodynamic Effects of Sublimating, Blowing Snow in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer

A seasonal snowcover blankets much of Canada during wintertime. In such an environment, the frequency of blowing snow events is relatively high and can have important meteorological and hydrological impacts. Apart from the transport of snow, the thermodynamic impact of sublimating blowing snow in air near the surface can be investigated. Using a time or fetch-dependent blowing snow model named 'PIEKTUK' that incorporates prognostic equations for a spectrum of sublimating snow particles, plus temperature and humidity distributions, it is found that the sublimation of blowing snow can lead to temperature decreases of the order of 0.5 °C and significant water vapour increases in the near-surface air. Typical predicted snow removal rates due to sublimation of blowing snow are several millimetres snow water equivalent per day over open Arctic tundra conditions. The model forecast sublimation rates are most sensitive to humidity, as well as wind speed, temperature and particle distributions, with a maximum value in sublimation typically found approximately 1 km downstream from blowing snow initiation. This suggests that the sublimation process is self-limiting despite ongoing transport of snow by wind, yielding significantly lower values of blowing snow sublimation rates (nearly two-thirds less) compared to situations where the thermodynamic feedbacks are neglected. The PIEKTUK model may provide the necessary thermodynamic inputs or blowing snow parameterizations for mesoscale models, allowing the assessment of the contribution of blowing snow fluxes, in more complex situations, to the moisture budgets of high-latitude regions.     

漳州经济开发区7号山体爆破地震波衰减规律的分析

本文通过对漳州开发区7号山体硐室大爆破振动速度、加速度的测试及数据的初步分析,阐述了爆破地震波衰减规律及其影响因素。并引入平均衰减指数的概念,对开发区当地以后众多的大、中型爆破抗震的安全设计提供有益的依据。