Intermittent Drifting Snow – Combining Experimental and Model Studies

ABSTRACT:. A study combining field observations and wind tunnel measurements of drifting snow is presented. In field measurements we found fluctuations of the snow mass flux on short time scales. From observations by eye and model results these may be ascribed to mass transport in coherent flow structures. The wind tunnel measurements do not show this type of flow structures, due to the restric-tion of the dimensions of the flow. However, we found increased fluctuations of mass flux of drifting snow with progressing erosion, which could be explained by the creation of surfaces ripples, which can break and release a large amount of snow particles in a short time.