Wind-borne redistribution of snow across an Antarctic ice rise

King, J.C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3315-7568; Anderson, P.S.; Vaughan, D.G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9065-0570; Mann, G.W.; Mobbs, S.D.; Vosper, S.B.. 2004 Wind-borne redistribution of snow across an Antarctic ice rise. Journal of Geophysical Research, 109 (D11), D11104. 12, pp. https://doi.org/10.1029/2003JD004361

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Abstract/Summary

Redistribution of snow by the wind can drive spatial and temporal variations in snow accumulation that may affect the reconstruction of paleoclimate records from ice cores. In this paper we investigate how spatial variations in snow accumulation along a 13 km transect across Lyddan Ice Rise, Antarctica, are related to wind-borne snow redistribution. Lyddan Ice Rise is an approximately two-dimensional ridge which rises about 130 m above the surrounding ice shelves. Local slopes on its flanks never exceed 0.04. Despite this very smooth profile, there is a pronounced gradient in snow accumulation across the feature. Accumulation is highest on the ice shelf to the east ( climatologically upwind) of the ice rise and decreases moving westward, with the lowest accumulation seen to the west ( climatologically downwind) of the ice rise crest. Superimposed on this broad-scale gradient are large ( 20-30%), localized variations in accumulation on a scale of around 1 km that appear to be associated with local variations in surface slope of less than 0.01. The broad-scale accumulation gradient is consistent with estimates of wind-borne redistribution of snow made using wind speed observations from three automatic weather stations. The small-scale variability in accumulation is reproduced quite well using a snow transport model driven by surface winds obtained from an airflow model, providing that both the wind shear and static stability of the upwind flow are taken into account. We conclude that great care needs to be exercised in selecting ice core sites in order to avoid the possibility of blowing snow transport confounding climate reconstructions.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1029/2003JD004361
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > Antarctic Science in the Global Context (2000-2005) > Antarctic Climate Processes BAS Programmes > Antarctic Science in the Global Context (2000-2005) > Global Interactions of the Antarctic Ice Sheet
ISSN:	0148-0227
Additional Keywords:	Snow; Accumulation;
NORA Subject Terms:	Meteorology and Climatology Glaciology
Date made live:	12 Aug 2010 14:03 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/10146

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1029/2003JD004361

Programmes:

BAS Programmes > Antarctic Science in the Global Context (2000-2005) > Antarctic Climate Processes
BAS Programmes > Antarctic Science in the Global Context (2000-2005) > Global Interactions of the Antarctic Ice Sheet

ISSN:

0148-0227

Additional Keywords:

Snow; Accumulation;

NORA Subject Terms:

Meteorology and Climatology
Glaciology