Articles | Volume 12, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2923-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2923-2018
Research article
 | 
14 Sep 2018
Research article |  | 14 Sep 2018

Investigation of a wind-packing event in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica

Christian Gabriel Sommer, Nander Wever, Charles Fierz, and Michael Lehning

Data sets

Expedition to Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station, 2016/2017 Nander Wever, Michael Lehning, Christian Sommer, and Philip Crivelli https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.30

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Short summary
Wind packing is how wind produces hard crusts at the surface of the snowpack. This is relevant for the local mass balance in polar regions. However, not much is known about this process and it is difficult to capture its high spatial and temporal variability. A wind-packing event was measured in Antarctica. It could be quantified how drifting snow leads to wind packing and generates barchan dunes. The documentation of these deposition dynamics is an important step in understanding polar snow.