Morphodynamics of snow barchans at Concordia Station, Antarctica
Abstract
Barchans are crescent-shaped dunes that form and migrate under unimodal wind regimes in areas of low sediment availability. While sand barchan morphodynamics has been extensively studied, snow barchans remain poorly documented. Here, using hourly time-series images taken near Concordia Station, Antarctica, we measure the sizes (lengths 0.3 m to 13 m, widths 0.4 m to 7.5 m) and migration rates (0.13 m h−1 to 3.5 m h−1) of 44 populations of snow barchans during 2017–2022. We compare this dataset with established height–velocity and length-width relationships for sand barchans in both air and water. Our results show that snow barchans follow the same scaling as sand barchans, allowing us to estimate a characteristic sintering (bonding of snow particles) time of about one day. This sintering process limits the size of snow barchans when active, reduces their aspect ratios, and, once wind falls below the transport threshold, explains their preservation over a few years. During wind events, migrating barchans are too small to maintain their shape and orientation, making them highly responsive to fluctuations in wind direction. Thus, studying snow barchans improves understanding of an elementary bedform encountered in multiple environments and also of the surface properties of snow on different timescales, offering insights into snow accumulation and wind-blown snow in ice cores.
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BibTeX
@article{poizat2026morphodynamics,
title = {{Morphodynamics of snow barchans at Concordia Station, Antarctica}},
author = {Marine Poizat and Jeanne Alkalla and Ghislain Picard and Laurent Arnaud and Daniel Nowacki and Simon Filhol and Eric Lefebvre and Clément Narteau},
journal = {Geomorphica},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.59236/geomorphica.v2i2.70},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05777369v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Morphodynamics of snow barchans at Concordia Station, Antarctica
AU - Marine Poizat
AU - Jeanne Alkalla
AU - Ghislain Picard
AU - Laurent Arnaud
AU - Daniel Nowacki
AU - Simon Filhol
AU - Eric Lefebvre
AU - Clément Narteau
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/22
JO - Geomorphica
DO - 10.59236/geomorphica.v2i2.70
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05777369v1
AB - Barchans are crescent-shaped dunes that form and migrate under unimodal wind regimes in areas of low sediment availability. While sand barchan morphodynamics has been extensively studied, snow barchans remain poorly documented. Here, using hourly time-series images taken near Concordia Station, Antarctica, we measure the sizes (lengths 0.3 m to 13 m, widths 0.4 m to 7.5 m) and migration rates (0.13 m h−1 to 3.5 m h−1) of 44 populations of snow barchans during 2017–2022. We compare this dataset with established height–velocity and length-width relationships for sand barchans in both air and water. Our results show that snow barchans follow the same scaling as sand barchans, allowing us to estimate a characteristic sintering (bonding of snow particles) time of about one day. This sintering process limits the size of snow barchans when active, reduces their aspect ratios, and, once wind falls below the transport threshold, explains their preservation over a few years. During wind events, migrating barchans are too small to maintain their shape and orientation, making them highly responsive to fluctuations in wind direction. Thus, studying snow barchans improves understanding of an elementary bedform encountered in multiple environments and also of the surface properties of snow on different timescales, offering insights into snow accumulation and wind-blown snow in ice cores.
SN - 2997-4550
ER -