Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa, 2009, Issue 6, Vol. 2, pp. 180-187
Measurement of the katabatic wind turbulent structure in the
Spitsbergen coastal zone
И.А. Репина
1, Б.В. Иванов
2, Р.Д. Кузнецов
31 Институт физики атмосферы им. А.М. Обухова РАН
Институт космических исследований РАН
2 Арктический и Антарктический научно-исследовательский институт,
С.-Петербург
3 Институт физики атмосферы им. А.М. Обухова РАН
A particularity of the glacier areas is the quasi persistence of strong offshore winds near the surface.
The so-called katabatic winds are generated by the negative buoyant force that develops in the stable
cooled layer along the ice sheet slopes. Katabatic winds exist in many parts of the world and are winds
that flow from the high elevations of mountains, plateaus, and hills down their slopes to the valleys or
planes below. They provide the major ventilation mechanism in mountainous regions at night when
synoptic pressure gradients are weak. Katabatic winds are the main components of the climate at glaciers
and surrounding areas, in particular, at the Antarctica, Greenland, and Arctic islands.
Our experiments were carried out near the Konsvegen glacier in Svalbard during the spring time.
The purpose of this work is determination of the boundary conditions for the mesoscale climate models.
Keywords: polar climate, katabatic winds, air-surface exchange, roughness parameter
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