Meteorological modeling of very high-resolution wind fields and snow deposition for mountains

Abstract

The inhomogeneous snow distribution found in alpine terrain is the result of wind and precipitation interacting with the snow surface. During major snowfall events, preferential deposition of snow and transport of previously deposited snow often takes place simultaneously. Both processes, however, are driven by the local wind field, which is influenced by the local topography. In this study, the meteorological model Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) was used to compute mean flow fields of 50-m, 25-m-, 10-m-, and 5-m grid spacing to investigate snow deposition patterns resulting from two snowfall events on a mountain ridge in the Swiss Alps. Only the initial adaptation of the flow field to the topography is calculated with artificial boundary conditions. The flow fields then drive the snow deposition and transport module of Alpine3D, a model of mountain surface processes. The authors compare the simulations with partly new measurements of snow deposition on the Gaudergrat ridge. On the basis of these four grid resolutions, it was possible to investigate the effects of numerical resolution in the calculation of wind fields and in the calculation of the associated snow deposition. The most realistic wind field and deposition patterns were obtained with the highest resolution of 5 m. These high-resolution simulations confirm the earlier hypothesis that preferential deposition is active at the ridge scale and true redistribution-mainly via saltation-forms smaller-scale deposition patterns, such as dunes and cornices. © 2010 American Meteorological Society.