Abstract
Snow cover is represented as a natural community of the shapes of growing crystals interacting with each other and exposed to environmental influences. It is worked out the empirical deterministic models describing the sublimation-metamorphic cycle of seasonal snow cover and the polymorphic variants of this cycle. The main driving force of processes yielding an evolutionary row of crystals are internal interactions within a snow pack. For all that the factor of time (the age of genetic player) plays a crucial role in sublimation metamorphism. Stadiality of the forms of crystal growth and self-development snow layers are revealed. They are a result of successive process of superposition of ice crystal-chemical symmetry and dissymmetry of the whole system soil–snow–atmosphere, according to the known P. Curie principle. Crystal-morphological classification for season snow is worked out by author on the base of the given an account evolutionary model. Two categories of crystal shapes have been picked out: classes and types of forms. The first category reflects the invariant aspect of snow sublimation metamorphism and the second one – the hydrothermal conditions of this process in each layer of the snow pack. Evolution of snow pack structure is conditioned to a marked degree by probabilistic conformity to natural laws, manifesting themselves in the processes of auto-regulation of metamorphism. These processes include the two types of regulation: the self-regulation of snow layers, on the one hand, and their regulation from outside – under the influence of atmospheric perturbations, on the other hand. An analysis of the processes of auto-regulation of metamorphism is capable of rendering a substantial service in the development of methods of short- and long-term forecasting of the avalanches. Crystal-morphological structure of snow cover may be considered also as a “quickly running” model of many evolutionary biosphere processes.
Highlights
Up to the present, the study of processes within snow packs has been based on consideration of snow cover mainly as a continual matter-energy system
It is necessary to elaborate an evolutionary basis of the theory of sublimation metamorphism of seasonal snow cover for improvement of the scientific and methodical basis of snow avalanche prediction and development of the methods of indication of the winter regime of landscapes by snow structure. Solution of this problem is envisaged by way of constructing discrete models of system organization and development of snow cover based on its crystal morphology and fundamental laws of natural symmetry, as well as developing on the basis of these models the methods for investigation of the processes of sublimation snow metamorphism from positions of the theory of evolution
The crystal-morphological analysis of snow structure may be employed as an effective method of interpreting the conditions and processes of internal transformations in the snow cover
Summary
The study of processes within snow packs has been based on consideration of snow cover mainly as a continual matter-energy system. It is necessary to elaborate an evolutionary basis of the theory of sublimation metamorphism of seasonal snow cover for improvement of the scientific and methodical basis of snow avalanche prediction and development of the methods of indication of the winter regime of landscapes by snow structure Solution of this problem is envisaged by way of constructing discrete models of system organization and development of snow cover based on its crystal morphology and fundamental laws of natural symmetry, as well as developing on the basis of these models the methods for investigation of the processes of sublimation snow metamorphism from positions of the theory of evolution. It should be proved that the transformation of evolutionary units of snow cover (forms of crystals and their communities) is based on their self-development (self-organization and auto-regulation), which has both invariant and stochastic regularities, as well as the properties of adaptation to the varying winter meteorological regime All these characteristics of snow cover sublimation metamorphism correspond to the propositions of the general theory of evolution of natural systems. Recent three-measured investigations of snow microstructure (Schneebeli, Sokratov, 2004) represent the doubtless interest in this aspect
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