Snow physics as relevant to snow photochemistry

By F. Dominé, M. Albert, T. Huthwelker, H. Jacobi, Alexander A. Kokhanovsky, M. Lehning, Ghislain Picard, W. Simpson. 2007

300 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Snow on the ground is a complex multiphase photochemical reactor that dramatically modifies the chemical composition of the overlying atmosphere. A quantitative description of the emissions of reactive gases by snow requires knowledge of snow physical properties. This overview details our current understanding of how those physical properties relevant to snow photochemistry vary during snow metamorphism. Properties discussed are density, specific surface area, thermal conductivity, permeability, gas diffusivity and optical properties. Inasmuch as possible, equations to parameterize these properties as functions of climatic variables are proposed, based on field measurements, laboratory experiments and theory. The potential of remote sensing methods to obtain information on some snow physical variables such as grain size, liquid water content and snow depth are discussed. The possibilities for and difficulties of building a snow photochemistry model by adapting current snow physics models are explored. Elaborate snow physics models already exist, and including variables of particular interest to snow photochemistry such as light fluxes and specific surface area appears possible. On the other hand, understanding the nature and location of reactive molecules in snow seems to be the greatest difficulty modelers will have to face for lack of experimental data, and progress on this aspect will require the detailed study of natural snow samples.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/163d671b35f1f859a25404d578bdcf54f5b0c3ec

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In Atmospheric Science

In Global and Planetary Change

T. Bartels-Rausch

Citations in the corpus

Influence of grain shape on light penetration in snow (2013, unknown): “, 2012) and on the availability of photons for photochemical reactions in the ultraviolet and visible (King and Simpson, 2001; Domine et al., 2008).”
3-D image-based numerical computations of snow permeability: links to specific surface area, density, and microstructural anisotropy (2012, methodology): “This range of values is consistent with previous experimental and numerical estimates of snow permeability (e.g. Sommerfeld and Rocchio, 1993; Albert et al., 2000; Luciano and Albert, 2002; Domine et al., 2008; Arakawa et al., 2009; Courville et al., 2010; Zermatten et al., 2011).”
Ice structures, patterns, and processes: A view across the icefields (2012, background): “Metamorphism in the snow surface layer also impacts the chemistry occurring within the snow pack, both directly due to release of trace gases from the shrinking snow surface area, and because snow properties modify the light penetration through snow (Dominé et al., 2008); see below.”