Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/tcd-9-301-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/tcd-9-301-2015
15 Jan 2015
 | 15 Jan 2015
Status: this preprint was under review for the journal TC but the revision was not accepted.

A 3-D simulation of drifting snow in the turbulent boundary layer

N. Huang and Z. Wang

Abstract. The drifting snow is one of the most important factors that affect the global ice mass balance and hydrological balance. Current models of drifting snow are usually one- or two-dimensional, focusing on the macroscopic quantities of drifting snow under temporal average flow. In this paper, we take the coupling effects between wind and snow particles into account and present a 3-D model of drifting snow with mixed grain size in the turbulent boundary layer. The Large Eddy Simulation (LES) method is used for simulating the turbulent boundary layer of the wind field and the 3-D trajectory of every motion snow particle is calculated through Lagrangian Particle Tracking method. The results indicated that the drifting snow in the turbulent boundary layer has apparent 3-D structure and snow streamers, which lead to an intermittent transport of the snow particles and spatial inhomogeneity, and the motion trajectories of snow particles, especially the small snow particles, are obviously affected by the turbulent fluctuation. The macro statistics of drifting snow indicates that the spanwise velocity of snow particles increases with height and is one order smaller than that of streamwise velocity. Furthermore, the diameter distribution of snow particles in the air along the height shows a stratification structure.

N. Huang and Z. Wang
 
Status: closed
Status: closed
AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
Printer-friendly Version - Printer-friendly version Supplement - Supplement
 
Status: closed
Status: closed
AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
Printer-friendly Version - Printer-friendly version Supplement - Supplement
N. Huang and Z. Wang
N. Huang and Z. Wang

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Short summary
Drifting snow is a frequent occurrence natural phenomenon at high latitudes, which has a non-ignorable contribution to the mass balance of ice sheets as well as hydrological balance. The snow drifting process in the turbulent boundary layer is performed and the snow streamers are reproduced. In addition, the particles' velocities along spanwise direction is one order of magnitude smaller than streamwise direction and the diameter distribution along height shows a stratification structure.