Date

AGU Fall Meeting special session, The role of microstructure and
layering on the physical properties, metamorphism, and deformation of
snow covers

Deadline for abstract submissions is September 5, 2002

For abstract submission form go to:
http://submissions3.agu.org/submission/entrance.asp

General information about the Fall Meeting of AGU is available at:
http://agu.org/meetings/fm02top.html


Dear colleagues,

We would like to bring to your attention a special session to be held at
the Fall AGU (6-10 December 2002, San Francisco), entitled "The role of
microstructure and layering on the physical properties, metamorphism,
and deformation of snow covers". The session description is given below.
We invite hydrologists, snow mechanists, remote sensing researchers, and
snow cover modelers to submit abstracts, especially where the work of
one of these communities could enlighten the other. The deadline for
electronic abstract submissions is 5 September 2002.

We hope to see you in San Francisco.

Martin Schneebeli schneebeli [at] slf.ch

Jerry Johnson jjohnson [at] crrel.usace.army.mil

C 04 (Cryosphere, SIP)

The role of microstructure and layering on the physical properties,
metamorphism, and deformation of snow covers

Description:
Microstructure and layering strongly affect a snow cover's physical
properties (e.g., thermal conductivity, reflectivity, viscosity, elastic
modulus), metamorphism, and deformation. Further complexity occurs as a
snow cover's microstructure and layering vary in space and time. A lack
of accurate methods to measure microstructure and layering and to relate
those measurements to snow cover processes hampers the development of
descriptions of snow behavior needed to improve climate models,
avalanche forecasts, and to solve snow geophysical and engineering
problems. This session invites contributions to examine methods of
measuring snow microstructure and layering, the spatial variation of
microstructure and layering, the influence of microstructure and
layering on snow physical, metamorphic, hydraulic, and mechanical
processes, and the possible limits of continuum theories in simulating
snow covers.