Altering Metamorphism in Snow Profiles
In the first year of operation Mount Sima ski hill found that snow disintegrated and melted of sublimated more rapidly in some areas of the hill than in other areas. Parts of runs that had been packed earlier in the season seemed to last longer than those that were packed by skiing.
The ES class explored this by setting out a number of monitoring stations on both packed and unpacked runs. We installed four , four channel data loggers, recording temperatures 10 cm in the soil, at the soil/snow interface, 10 cm in the snow layer. At sites where the loggers would not be disturbed from skiers. we recorded four channels of data including and air temperatures. We recorded these temperatures and the snow conditions from mid November until late March.
We found that, on the packed runs, soil temperature was as much as fifteen degrees colder than the sites that were undisturbed or packed by skiers. In the packed areas we noticed the snow stayed much longer and was uniformly soild throughout the profile. In the protected areas, the lower section of the profile underwent metamorphism with the growth of large fragile crystals.
ES recommended that the Mt Sima hill management pack the snow early in the season and keep the runs packed throughout the winter. This cools the ground which in turn reduces the warming of the lower snow profile by the ground losing heat to the snow.
In the first year of operation Mount Sima ski hill found that snow disintegrated and melted of sublimated more rapidly in some areas of the hill than in other areas. Parts of runs that had been packed earlier in the season seemed to last longer than those that were packed by skiing.
The ES class explored this by setting out a number of monitoring stations on both packed and unpacked runs. We installed four , four channel data loggers, recording temperatures 10 cm in the soil, at the soil/snow interface, 10 cm in the snow layer. At sites where the loggers would not be disturbed from skiers. we recorded four channels of data including and air temperatures. We recorded these temperatures and the snow conditions from mid November until late March.
We found that, on the packed runs, soil temperature was as much as fifteen degrees colder than the sites that were undisturbed or packed by skiers. In the packed areas we noticed the snow stayed much longer and was uniformly soild throughout the profile. In the protected areas, the lower section of the profile underwent metamorphism with the growth of large fragile crystals.
ES recommended that the Mt Sima hill management pack the snow early in the season and keep the runs packed throughout the winter. This cools the ground which in turn reduces the warming of the lower snow profile by the ground losing heat to the snow.