Importance of ice layers on liquid water storage within a snowpack

✍ Scribed by Pratap Singh; Gerhard Spitzbart; H. Huebl; H. W. Weinmeister

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 208 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6087
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1085(199909)13:12/13<1799::aid-hyp880>3.0.co;2-m

✦ Synopsis

Knowledge of the eect of the physical characteristics of the snowpack on the onset of snowmelt runo is needed for the modelling of snowmelt runo. In the present study, the importance of ice layers in the snowpack to the release of meltwater has been investigated. Arti®cial rain was simulated over a snow plot of known dimensions prepared in the Glatzbach Basin in the Austrian Alps. The experiment was performed at an altitude of 2640 m just before the onset of snowmelt runo from the snowpack at that altitude. Stratigraphic studies were made before and after the experiment. The snowpack contained ®ve ice layers and the thickness of these layers varied from about 2 to 8 mm. The average liquid water content of the snowpack was about 4% by volume before the rain simulation. The results indicate a substantial increase in the storage capacity of the snowpack due to the presence of ice layers in the snowpack when it met saturated conditions because of rain water input. An amount equivalent to 100 mm, which is about 9 . 25% by volume, was absorbed by the snow block before the appearance of runo from the snowplot.