HR: 15:00h
AN: CG13B-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Assessing the potential contribution of blowing snow to the mass balance of glaciers in the Cariboo Mountains of British Columbia, Canada
AU: * Yadghar, A
EM: yadghar@unbc.ca
AF: Environmental Science and Engineering Program, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9, Canada
AU: Ainslie, B
EM: ainslie@unbc.ca
AF: Environmental Science and Engineering Program, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9, Canada
AU: Jackson, P L
EM: peterj@unbc.ca
AF: Environmental Science and Engineering Program, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9, Canada
AU: Dery, S J
EM: sdery@unbc.ca
AF: Environmental Science and Engineering Program, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9, Canada
AB: The difference between snow accumulation and ice ablation determines the mass balance of glaciers, with snowfall as the dominant input. However, blowing snow is another important term in glacier mass balance. Blowing snow occurs when loose particles of snow at the surface are entrained by winds exceeding a certain threshold for transport. The role of blowing snow in the surface mass balance of glaciers in the Cariboo Mountains (the northern extension of the Columbia Mountains) of British Columbia, Canada is assessed in this study. The regional atmospheric modeling system (RAMS) model is used to simulate several case studies of blowing snow in the region of interest. The simulations are validated with meteorological data from a mesoscale network (mesonet) of high-elevation automatic weather stations (AWSs) entitled the Cariboo Alpine Mesonet (CAMnet) that has been developed in the region since 2006. The mass divergence (convergence) fields from the RAMS simulations provide an indication of the blowing snow erosion (accumulation) areas. These are then compared with the spatial distribution of glaciers in the Cariboo Mountains. Our results suggest that snow drift may contribute significantly to the mass budget of glaciers in the region.
DE: 0762 Mass balance (1218, 1223)
DE: 1800 HYDROLOGY
DE: 1827 Glaciology (0736, 0776, 1863)
DE: 1863 Snow and ice (0736, 0738, 0776, 1827)
SC: Canadian Geophysical Union [CG]
MN: 2009 Joint Assembly