Clarify the formation process of white spotted wet snow

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K13528
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Mathematical physics/Fundamental condensed matter physics
• Research Institution: Kitami Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Kameda Takao 北見工業大学, 工学部, 教授 (00233974)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 原田 康浩 北見工業大学, 工学部, 准教授 (80198928) ; 小澤 久 広島大学, 総合科学研究科, 准教授 (30371743)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): Nohguchi Takaaki 国立研究開発法人防災科学技術研究所, アウトリーチ・国際研究推進センター, 契約専門員 (50360368)
• Research Collaborator: Murai Akio ; Fujino Takeshi
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 斑点ぬれ雪 / 生成メカニズム / 濡れ雪 / 水飽和した濡れ雪 / 白い斑点 / 白い斑点模様

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Observations using interval cameras on white spotted wet snow have been extensively carried out at Kitami (Hokkaido pref.), Niigata (Niigata pref.) and Kanazawa (Ishikawa pref.) in Japan from 2015/16 to 2017/18 winter seasons. We also examine the formation process of white spots on wet snow surface using elastic deformation theory.
We found that large air bubbles of 1 cm diameter in soaked wet snow was formed from small air bubbles of about 1mm diameter within a few minutes. The large air bubbles float in snow layer, and the air bubbles move horizontally at 1 to 3 cm during the formation process of the large air bubbles. According to the elastic deformation theory, the distance between the large air bubbles is proportional to the power of 3/4 of the thickness of soaked snow layer, 1/4 of Young’s modules of the snow layer and -1/4 of acceleration of gravity.

Free Research Field

雪氷学