Measurements of snow mass flux and transport rate at different particle diameters in drifting snow

Konosuke Sugiura*, Kouichi Nishimura, Norikazu Maeno, Tadashi Kimura

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

52 Scopus citations

Abstract

Wind tunnel experiments were carried out to investigate the snow mass flux and the snow transport rate as functions of friction velocity and particle diameter. Friction velocities obtained with an ultra sonic anemometer was from u = 0.15 to 0.39 m/s. The number flux and the particle size of drifting snow were measured with a new snow particle counter at heights of 16 to 61 mm above the snow surface. The horizontal snow mass flux at each particle diameter d, qd, decreased exponentially with height qd ∝ exp(-λdz/(u2/g)), where z is the geight, g is the acceleration due to gravity and λd is a dimensionless parameter. The constant λd was independent of friction velocity, and at larger particle diameters, approached to 0.3. The total snow transport rate increased with the power (3.96) of friction velocity, but the total snow transport rate at each particle diameter showed that the power decreased with increasing particle diameter, and approach to 3.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)83-89
Number of pages7
JournalCold Regions Science and Technology
Volume27
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1998/04

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology
  • General Earth and Planetary Sciences

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