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  4. Towards a fully physical representation of snow on Arctic sea ice using a 3D snow-atmosphere model
 
conference presentation

Towards a fully physical representation of snow on Arctic sea ice using a 3D snow-atmosphere model

Wagner, David Nicholas
•
Clemens-Sewall, David
•
Hames, Océane
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February 16, 2023
2nd MOSAiC Science Conference

Snow is an excellent insulating material with a thermal conductivity that, in the case of snow on Arctic sea ice in winter, is about one-eighth that of pure ice. Therefore, it is crucial to understand snow processes which relate to the magnitude and location of the melt of the underlying sea ice. The Central Arctic is characterized by high average wind speeds close to the snow surface, thus resulting in large horizontal snow mass flux which leads to a strongly modified snow stratigraphy on level sea ice and around ridges. We use the 3D snowpack-atmosphere model ALPINE3D with wind fields generated with OpenFOAM to study and quantify snow transport. The setup allows us to investigate how wind-induced snow transport relates to detailed layered snow cover quantities, such as density, grain properties or temperature. We show that the model predicts the timing of snow transport with high accuracy and reproduces accumulation and erosion very well in some cases, especially along pronounced pressure ridges. However, it shows weaknesses for less pronounced irregularities in the surface. We also show that the model is very susceptible to changes in snow properties, which can therefore influence the snow surface mass balance very significantly.

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Type
conference presentation
Author(s)
Wagner, David Nicholas
Clemens-Sewall, David
Hames, Océane
Jafari, Mahdi  
Macfarlane, Amy R.
Michel, Adrien  
Raphael, Ian
Schneebeli, Martin
Shupe, Matthew
Wever, Nander
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Date Issued

2023-02-16

Total of pages

15

Subjects

snow re-distribution

•

sea ice

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Arctic

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snow erosion

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snow deposition

Written at

OTHER

EPFL units
CRYOS  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
2nd MOSAiC Science Conference

Boulder, CO, USA

13-17 February 2023

Available on Infoscience
March 10, 2023
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/195650
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