| Abstract: | Ablation processes of snow under a thin dust cover are complicated compared with those under a thick cover, mainly owing to the effects of aggregation (redistribution) of dust particles on the conditions of surface melting. Aggregation of dust particles causes the snow surface to brighten after the initial dust configuration, thus affecting the relationship between initial dust concentration and surface albedo. In order to estimate snow ablation rate under a thin dust cover, we used a composite energy balance model in which the surface albedo is taken as a measured input variable. The estimated results of snow ablation agreed reasonably well with the observation, considering the measurement errors inherited in the snow depressions. Comparison of the two cases, that is, one considering the aggregation of dust particles (observation: albedo variable) and the other without aggregation (assumption: albedo constant), showed that the ablation rates were noticeably lower on the former case. This suggests that the aggregation of dust particles induces a reduction of snow ablation. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
