Blowing snow in Antarctica: 3 years of continuous observations in Adélie Land

International audienceThe Surface Mass Balance (SMB) of the Antarctic ice sheet is probably the only important negative contribution to the sea-level rise. Net erosion of snow by the wind may contribute significantly to the SMB of the Antarctic costal zone. However, there are very few field observations to confirm this hypothesis and to evaluate numerical models developed for this purpose. Adélie Land, located in East Antarctica, is one of the windiest places in the world in term of mean wind speed at the coast. Furthermore, the frequency of the blowing snow events, determined by visual observations, is very high. That is why a field campaign was launched in January 2009 to acquire new modelevaluation- oriented observations in the framework of the European project ICE2SEA and with the logistical support of the French polar Institute (IPEV). Three automatic weather and snow stations, including acoustic sensors for the aeolian transport of snow named FlowCapt, have been deployed in Adélie Land. The stations locations are distinct ranging from 1 to 100 km inland. One of them is a 7 mmast with 6 levels of anemometers and thermo-hygrometers. Thus, the campaign can assess, inter alias, transport events periods, transport frequencies, snow quantities transported, threshold friction velocities and the ratio between small and large fluxes events. Those results can be use in the evaluations of the regional climate models