Environmental News Network - OU Researcher Awarded NSF Grant to Study Katabatic Winds Contribute to the Growth and Erosion of Antarctic Ice Sheet

Details: By University of Oklahoma; 15.Oct

Scott T. Salesky, an assistant professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, is the principal investigator of a recently awarded $530,297 grant through the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs to study how katabatic winds – cold, dense winds flowing down a sloping surface – impact snow transport and ultimately contribute to the growth of the Antarctic ice sheet.

Cheryl Porter

Scott T. Salesky, an assistant professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, is the principal investigator of a recently awarded $530,297 grant through the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs to study how katabatic winds – cold, dense winds flowing down a sloping surface – impact snow transport and ultimately contribute to the growth of the Antarctic ice sheet.

The study is a collaborative effort between Salesky and colleagues at Columbia University in New York. The NSF funding will allow the OU and Columbia researchers to conduct field work near McMurdo Station, a U.S. research station located on the south tip of Ross Island in Antarctica.

Katabatic winds, also called drainage winds, carry high-density air from a higher elevation down a slope under the force of gravity. Although katabatic flows are ubiquitous in alpine and polar regions, turbulent transport of heat, water vapor, momentum and particles (such as snow) are poorly understood in these flows, undermining the accuracy of numerical weather and climate prediction models.

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OU Researcher Awarded NSF Grant to Study Katabatic Winds Contribute to the Growth and Erosion of Antarctic Ice Sheet