The interaction of katabatic winds and the formation of blue-ice areas in East Antarctica

A meteorological experiment, performed in and around a blue-ice area showed that during drifting-snow conditions surface wind speed over the blue ice behind the mountain barrier is equal to that away from the mountains, when corrected for surface roughness and stability. This implies that use of diagnostic katabatic wind models to estimate divergence of drifting snow can be extended to the situation where nunataks are involved in preventing the drifting snow from passing, which is the case for most BIAs. A diagnostic model is tested. The present order-of-magnitude estimate shows that areas sensitive to blue-ice formation appear where precipitation is low and mean annual wind speed is high. -from Authors