Stephen Palm

By Stephen P. Palm, Yuekui Yang and Vinay Kayetha

Blowing snow processes commonly occur over the earth’s ice sheets and snow covered regions when near surface wind speed exceeds a threshold value. These processes play a key role in the sublimation and redistribution of snow, thereby influencing the surface mass balance. Prior field studies and modeling results have shown the importance of blowing snow sublimation and transport on the surface mass budget and hydrological cycle of high latitude regions. Until recently, most of our knowledge of blowing snow was obtained from field measurements or modeling. Recent advances in satellite remote sensing have enabled a more complete understanding of the nature of blowing snow. Using 12 years of satellite lidar data, climatology of blowing snow frequency has been compiled, showing the spatial and temporal distribution of blowing snow frequency over Antarctica. Other characteristics of blowing snow such as backscatter structure and profiles of temperature, relative humidity, and winds through the layer are explored. A new technique that uses direct measurements of blowing snow backscatter combined with model meteorological reanalysis fields to compute the magnitude of blowing snow sublimation and transport is also discussed.

Part of the book: Antarctica