Abstract
Profiles of temperature and humidity are calculated for a snow surface being cooled by outgoing radiation assuming no wind. These suggest that fog would necessarily form to block the cooling and, even in the absence of fog, the diffusion of water vapor to the surface could not account for observed rates of surface hoar growth. Therefore turbulent transfer to an interfacial sublayer with a very large temperature gradient must occur at least intermittently. In mountainous areas, gravity drainage of air over the interfacial sublayer probably accounts for the turbulence since air currents from a regional pressure gradient appear to transfer enough heat to the surface to prevent surface hoar growth. The vapor must diffuse through a 1 mm interfacial sublayer until the crystals reach a sufficient height to interact with the drainage wind.
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Colbeck, S.C. On the micrometeorology of surface hoar growth on snow in mountainous area. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 44, 1–12 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00117290
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00117290