The importance of sub-meter-scale snow roughness on conductive heat flux of Arctic sea ice
The conductive heat flux through the snow and ice is a critical component of the mass and energy budgets in the Arctic sea ice system. We use high horizontal resolution (3–15 cm) measurements of snow topography to explore the impacts of sub-meter-scale snow surface roughness on heat flux as simulate...
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Cambridge University Press
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Glaciology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143023001053/type/journal_article |
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| author | David Clemens-Sewall Chris Polashenski Don Perovich Melinda Anne Webster |
| author_facet | David Clemens-Sewall Chris Polashenski Don Perovich Melinda Anne Webster |
| author_sort | David Clemens-Sewall |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The conductive heat flux through the snow and ice is a critical component of the mass and energy budgets in the Arctic sea ice system. We use high horizontal resolution (3–15 cm) measurements of snow topography to explore the impacts of sub-meter-scale snow surface roughness on heat flux as simulated by the Finite Element method. Simulating horizontal heat flux in a variable snow cover modestly increases the total simulated heat flux. With horizontal heat flux, as opposed to simple 1D-vertical heat flux modeling, the simulated heat flux is 10% greater than that for uniform snow with the same mean snow thickness for a 31.5 × 21 m region of sea ice (the largest region we studied). Vertical-only (1D) heat flux simulates just a 6% increase for the same region. However, this is highly dependent on observation resolution. Had we measured the snow cover at 1 m horizontal spacing or greater, simulating horizontal heat flux would not have changed the net heat flux from that simulated with vertical-only heat flux. These findings suggest that measuring and modeling snow roughness at sub-meter horizontal scales may be necessary to accurately represent horizontal heat flux on level Arctic sea ice. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-71ca49cfeafe48209aeff053ffedae71 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
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| series | Journal of Glaciology |
| spelling | doaj-art-71ca49cfeafe48209aeff053ffedae712025-01-16T21:46:38ZengCambridge University PressJournal of Glaciology0022-14301727-56522024-01-017010.1017/jog.2023.105The importance of sub-meter-scale snow roughness on conductive heat flux of Arctic sea iceDavid Clemens-Sewall0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2496-5256Chris Polashenski1Don Perovich2Melinda Anne Webster3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5976-9485Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USAThayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, US Army Corps of Engineers, Hanover, NH, USAThayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USAPolar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USAThe conductive heat flux through the snow and ice is a critical component of the mass and energy budgets in the Arctic sea ice system. We use high horizontal resolution (3–15 cm) measurements of snow topography to explore the impacts of sub-meter-scale snow surface roughness on heat flux as simulated by the Finite Element method. Simulating horizontal heat flux in a variable snow cover modestly increases the total simulated heat flux. With horizontal heat flux, as opposed to simple 1D-vertical heat flux modeling, the simulated heat flux is 10% greater than that for uniform snow with the same mean snow thickness for a 31.5 × 21 m region of sea ice (the largest region we studied). Vertical-only (1D) heat flux simulates just a 6% increase for the same region. However, this is highly dependent on observation resolution. Had we measured the snow cover at 1 m horizontal spacing or greater, simulating horizontal heat flux would not have changed the net heat flux from that simulated with vertical-only heat flux. These findings suggest that measuring and modeling snow roughness at sub-meter horizontal scales may be necessary to accurately represent horizontal heat flux on level Arctic sea ice.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143023001053/type/journal_articleLaser altimetrysnowsea icewind-blown snow |
| spellingShingle | David Clemens-Sewall Chris Polashenski Don Perovich Melinda Anne Webster The importance of sub-meter-scale snow roughness on conductive heat flux of Arctic sea ice Journal of Glaciology Laser altimetry snow sea ice wind-blown snow |
| title | The importance of sub-meter-scale snow roughness on conductive heat flux of Arctic sea ice |
| title_full | The importance of sub-meter-scale snow roughness on conductive heat flux of Arctic sea ice |
| title_fullStr | The importance of sub-meter-scale snow roughness on conductive heat flux of Arctic sea ice |
| title_full_unstemmed | The importance of sub-meter-scale snow roughness on conductive heat flux of Arctic sea ice |
| title_short | The importance of sub-meter-scale snow roughness on conductive heat flux of Arctic sea ice |
| title_sort | importance of sub meter scale snow roughness on conductive heat flux of arctic sea ice |
| topic | Laser altimetry snow sea ice wind-blown snow |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143023001053/type/journal_article |
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