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The accumulation zone is found at the highest altitude of the glacier, where accumulation of material is greater than ablation. On a glacier , the accumulation zone is the area above the firn line, where snowfall accumulates and exceeds the losses from ablation , ( melting , evaporation , and sublimation ).
Snow accumulation on ground and in tree branches in Germany Snow blowing across a highway in Canada Spring snow on a mountain in France. Classifications of snow describe and categorize the attributes of snow-generating weather events, including the individual crystals both in the air and on the ground, and the deposited snow pack as it changes over time.
The boundary between the accumulation zone and the ablation zone on glaciers is called the "annual snow line". The glacier region below this snow line was subject to melting in the previous season. The term "orographic snow line" is used to describe the snow boundary on surfaces other than glaciers.
When it comes to measuring snow cover on the ground, typically three variables are measured: the snow cover extent (SCE) — the land area covered by snow, snow cover duration (SD) — how long a particular area is covered by snow, and the snow accumulation, often expressed as snow water equivalent (SWE), which expresses how much water the snow ...
Snow Depth-This is a measurement from the snow surface to the ground in meters. It is commonly does over a large time span using immobile graduated stakes. Snow Water Equivalency- A measuring tool which represents the vertical depth of water that would accumulate in an area, if all the snow and ice were melted in that given area.
Glaciologists subdivide glaciers into glacier accumulation zones, based on the melting and refreezing occurring. [1] [2] These zones include the dry snow zone, in which the ice entirely retains subfreezing temperatures and no melting occurs. Dry snow zones only occur within the interior regions of the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets.
These mammals move under the snow for protection from heat loss and some predators. In winter regions that do not have permafrost, the subnivean zone maintains a temperature of close to 32 °F (0 °C) regardless of the temperature above the snow cover, once the snow cover has reached a depth of six inches (15 cm) or more. The sinuous tunnels ...
Sampling the surface of a glacier. There is increasingly dense firn between surface snow and blue glacier ice. Firn field on the top of Säuleck, Hohe Tauern. Firn (/ f ɪər n /; from Swiss German firn "last year's", cognate with before) is partially compacted névé, a type of snow that has been left over from past seasons and has been recrystallized into a substance denser than névé.