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  4. Modeling the small-scale deposition of snow onto structured Arctic sea ice during a MOSAiC storm using snowBedFoam 1.0.
 
research article

Modeling the small-scale deposition of snow onto structured Arctic sea ice during a MOSAiC storm using snowBedFoam 1.0.

Hames, Oceane
•
Jafari, Mahdi
•
Wagner, David Nicholas
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August 29, 2022
Geoscientific Model Development

The remoteness and extreme conditions of the Arctic make it a very difficult environment to investigate. In these polar regions covered by sea ice, the wind is relatively strong due to the absence of obstructions and redistributes a large part of the deposited snow mass, which complicates estimates for precipitation hardly distinguishable from blowing or drifting snow. Moreover, the snow mass balance in the sea ice system is still poorly understood, notably due to the complex structure of its surface. Quantitatively assessing the snow distribution on sea ice and its connection to the sea ice surface features is an important step to remove the snow mass balance uncertainties (i.e., snow transport contribution) in the Arctic environment. In this work we introduce snowBedFoam 1.0., a physics-based snow transport model implemented in the open-source fluid dynamics software OpenFOAM. We combine the numerical simulations with terrestrial laser scan observations of surface dynamics to simulate snow deposition in a MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) sea ice domain with a complicated structure typical for pressure ridges. The results demonstrate that a large fraction of snow accumulates in their vicinity, which compares favorably against scanner measurements. However, the approximations imposed by the numerical framework, together with potential measurement errors (precipitation), give rise to quantitative inaccuracies, which should be addressed in future work. The modeling of snow distribution on sea ice should help to better constrain precipitation estimates and more generally assess and predict snow and ice dynamics in the Arctic.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.5194/gmd-15-6429-2022
Web of Science ID

WOS:000846907000001

Author(s)
Hames, Oceane
Jafari, Mahdi
Wagner, David Nicholas
Raphael, Ian
Clemens-Sewall, David
Polashenski, Chris
Shupe, Matthew D.
Schneebeli, Martin
Lehning, Michael  
Date Issued

2022-08-29

Publisher

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH

Published in
Geoscientific Model Development
Volume

15

Issue

16

Start page

6429

End page

6449

Subjects

Geosciences, Multidisciplinary

•

Geology

•

drifting-snow

•

particle tracking

•

mass fluxes

•

wind-speed

•

saltation

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threshold

•

redistribution

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accumulation

•

sublimation

•

entrainment

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
CRYOS  
Available on Infoscience
September 12, 2022
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/190744
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