Abstract
Abstract. Drifting snow sublimation (DSS) is an important physical process related to moisture and heat transfer that happens in the atmospheric boundary layer, which is of glaciological and hydrological importance. It is also essential in order to understand the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheets and the global climate system. Previous studies mainly focused on the DSS of suspended snow and ignored that in the saltation layer. Here, a drifting snow model combined with balance equations for heat and moisture is established to simulate the physical DSS process in the saltation layer. The simulated results show that DSS can strongly increase humidity and cooling effects, which in turn can significantly reduce DSS in the saltation layer. However, effective moisture transport can dramatically weaken the feedback effects. Due to moisture advection, DSS rate in the saltation layer can be several orders of magnitude greater than that of the suspended particles. Thus, DSS in the saltation layer has an important influence on the distribution and mass–energy balance of snow cover.
Highlights
Drifting snow is a special process of mass–energy transport in the hydrological cycle of snow
Wind-blown snow has a self-regulating feedback mechanism between the saltating particles and the wind field; i.e., snow particles are entrained and transported by the wind, while the drag force associated with particle acceleration reduces the wind velocity in the saltation layer, limiting the entrainment of further particles
When moisture transport is included, the snow sublimation occurs throughout the simulation period, and temperature decreases
Summary
Drifting snow is a special process of mass–energy transport in the hydrological cycle of snow. Snow sublimation significantly influences the mass–energy balance of snow cover (e.g., Zhou et al, 2014) by changing surface albedo (Allison et al, 1993) and the runoff of snowmelt in cold regions (Marks and Winstral, 2001) and has a pivotal status on moisture and heat transfer in the atmospheric boundary layer (Pomeroy and Essery, 1999; Anderson and Neff, 2008). It is of glaciological and hydrological importance (Sugiura and Ohata, 2008). A detailed knowledge of DSS is essential in order to understand snow cover distribution in cold high areas as well as the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheets and, further, the global climate system (Yang et al, 2010)
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