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.
Citation
ID:
173843
Ref Key:
huang2016atmosphericthe