Blowing Snow, Visibility and Prediction

The Canadian Arctic is significantly affected by blowing snow and reduced visibility due to blowing snow. These conditions create hazards for ground transportation and for communities that rely heavily on air traffic for supplies, support and travel. Blowing snow is also a factor when designing structures and buildings for northern climate, as designs must take potential weight of snow accumulation and drift into consideration. Additionally, the transport of snow to and from land and ice surfaces can affect the timing of sea ice melt. STAR provided the opportunity to study blowing snow events in great detail. Specialized equipment to measure number density of snow particles, particle size distribution, and wind threshold was deployed during the STAR field project. As a result, specific relationships between wind speed, temperature, relative humidity, as well as ice crystal particle size distribution and visibility have been developed. These relationships help to define when blowing snow begins and ends, as well as how poor the visibilities will be during these events. These results bring us closer to improving blowing snow models for various applications.