Controlling Factors of Drifting Snow

A series of observations of drifting snow was carried out at Mizuho Camp, East Antarctica, during the wintering of the 13th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (1972-1973). The collectors used in this work were a box-type drift gauge and MELLOR\u27s saltation gauges, whereby measurements were made on the amount of snow drift transport, the saltation length of snow particles and their rebound mass under different condition of snow surface. The amount of snow drift transport Q (g/m・s) was represented by the relation logQ=(0.17-0.22)V-(0.2-0.4), where V represents the wind speed in m/s, from the results measured by these drift gauges. The saltation length was less than 75cm on a soft snow surface with dunes, barchans, etc., and more than 100cm on a hard snow surface with sastrugi, glazed surface. It was also found that the saltation length became longer and the amount of snow drift transport increased as temperature decreased