Mass-flux measurements in a cold wind tunnel: comparison of the mechanical traps with a snow-particle counter

Abstract

AbstractDuring September and October 1997, in the framework of a stay at the Shinjo Branch of Snow and Ice Studies, we used a Cryospheric Environment Simulator (Higashiura and others, 1997) and simulated drifting snow to test four mechanical traps. First we present the intercomparison of the four mechanical gauges, then we compare the gauges with the snow-particle counter (SPG). Comparing the four different traps tested, we have observed that the box type (snow collector) is generally more efficient than the net-type collectors. These results confirm the tendency observed in field experiments (Font and others, 1998b). Using the SPG to calibrate the mechanical gauges, we observed that the net-type traps underestimate transport in low-transport conditions, but as transport increases the underestimation tends to zero. Comparing the snow collector with the SPG, we observed good agreement between the two gauges.