Modelling the impact of drifting snow on the surface mass balance

The transport of snow by the wind is an important component of the Antarctic surface mass balance (SMB) as drifting snow counts up for a large amount of snow ablation over the ice sheet. However, this process is frequently neglected in atmospheric models. Two simulations (one with drifting snow and one without) were performed at a resolution of 8 km with the regional climate model MAR forced by ERA-Interim, in order to assess the impact of drifting snow on the SMB of Adelie Land (East Antarctica) during the period 2002 - 2016. We evaluated results against field observations (including meteorological and snow skate measurements). Besides to better represent climate surface as airborne snow particles can sublimate and interact with the lowest atmospheric levels, the drifting snow simulation improves the modelled spatial distribution of the SMB and reduces the overestimation of the accumulation in comparison with MAR results without drifting snow.