SOME MEASUREMENTS OF AIR PERMEABILITY IN A MOUNTAIN SNOW COVER

Abstract

Air permeability and density at various levels in an annual mountain snow cover were measured on three separate days in mid-February, early March, and late March, respectively. Permeabilities are presented together with estimates of grain size based on the empirical correlations between grain size and air permeability found in the literature. The variation of air permeability with absolute porosity for various snow types is compared with that found in the literature for a Swiss alpine snow cover and found to be in fair agreement. Grain size in the depth hoar layer is found to decrease by a third over the last period.