Premium
Meltwater Movement in Natural Heterogeneous Snow Covers
Author(s) -
Marsh Philip,
Woo MingKo
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/wr021i011p01710
Subject(s) - meltwater , snow , flow (mathematics) , arctic , environmental science , geology , flux (metallurgy) , hydrology (agriculture) , geomorphology , geotechnical engineering , oceanography , mathematics , geometry , materials science , metallurgy
Measurements of flow at the base of Arctic snow covers has shown that over small areas the flow varies from 0 to 240% of the mean surface meltwater flux. This variability in flow is primarily controlled by ice layers in the snow cover and is not caused by vertical flow channels with larger grain sizes. Day‐to‐day fluctuations in the flow variability were not sensitive to changes in snow depth or the number of ice layers but variations in flow were inversely related to flow volume, with lower Variability during high flow days. A multiple‐flow path model was developed to route water down independent flow paths, with each path carrying a different portion of the flow. Successful application of this model to data for a number of days from the Canadian Arctic and for 1 day from the Central Sierra Snow Lab suggests that it may be generally applicable to the snow covers in different environments.