WMO GCW home

Metadata

  • Station or cluster: Contributing Station
  • Belongs to cluster: Col du Lac Blanc
  • WMO ID (if any):
  • Shape: point
  • Latitude, longitude: 45.1276389, 6.1115555
  • Altitude and/or range (m): 2720
  • Landscape: Mountain
  • Year established: 2008
  • Year-round? No
  • Operations contact: Hervé Bellot
  • Science contact: Florence Naaim
  • Data contact: Hervé Bellot

Click here for Google Maps

Col
Contributing Station Information

The Col station belongs to the Col du Lac Blanc site and has been dedicated to the study of blowing snow in high mountainous regions for approximately 25 years by IRSTEA (Snow Avalanche Engineering and Torrent Control Research Unit). The pass orientation and the specific configuration of the surrounding summits make it closely resemble a natural wind tunnel. The experimental station is described in detail in Naaim-Bouvet et al. (2010) with the changes in the instrument setup over the years.
Parameters recorded at Col station every 10 minutes during the winter season since Dec 2008 are : (i) wind speed and direction (ii) snow depth (iii) horizontal blowing snow fluxes.
The station is not permanently staffed but there are weekly visit during wintertime.

Other Networks to Which This Contributing Station Belongs

Measurement Methods Used

Other relevant measurement method documents:

Since no standards in the aeolian process measurements exists, it is difficult to compare measurements taken in different regions. A wide variety of instruments is used. In the present case, data are provided by snow particle counter S7 (SPC-7). See (Trouvilliez et al. 2014) for more details. As the snow height varies throughout the winter, the height of sensor above the snow cover is provided for each measure.

Data Information

Publications

- Naaim-Bouvet, F., Guyomarch G., Bellot H., Durand Y., Naaim M., Vionnet V., Genthon C., Nishimura K., Ito Y., Prokop A., 2013, Lac Blanc Pass : a natural wind-tunnel for studying drifting snow at 2700 m a.s.l., Proceedings of International Snow Science Workshop, Grenoble Chamonix Mont-Blanc, 1332-1339.
- Naaim-Bouvet, F., Guyomarch, G., Naaim, M., Durand, Y., Bellot, H., Pugliese, P., 2012, Transport de neige par le vent sur un site de haute montagne : de la modelisation a l’observation, de l’observation a la modelisation. Houille Blanche-Revue Internationale de l eau, vol. 2012, 1, p. 51-57.
- Naaim-Bouvet, F., Naaim, M., Bellot, H., Nishimura, K., 2011, Wind and drifting-snow gust factor in an Alpine context. Annals of Glaciology, vol. 52, 58, p. 223-230.
- Naaim-Bouvet, F., Naaim, M., Bellot, H., 2010, Back analysis of drifting snow measurements over an instrumented mountainous site. Annals of Glaciology, vol. 51, no. 54, p. 207-217
- Schon P., Prokop A., Vionnet V., Guyomarch G., Naaim-Bouvet F., Heiser M., 2015, Improving a terrain-based parameter for the assessment of snow depths with TLS data in the Col du Lac Blanc area, Cold Regions science and Technology, Vol 114, 15-26. doi:10.1016/j.coldregions.2015.02.005
- Vionnet, V., Martin, E., Masson, V., Guyomarch, G., Naaim-Bouvet, F., Prokop, A., Durand, Y., and Lac, C., 2014, Simulation of wind-induced snow transport in alpine terrain using a fully coupled snowpack/atmosphere model, The Cryosphere, 8, 395-415. DOI:10.5194/tc-8-395-2014
- Vionnet, V., Martin, E., Masson, V., Guyomarc'h, G., Naaim-Bouvet, F., Prokop, A., Durand, Y., and Lac, C., 2014, Simulation of wind-induced snow transport in alpine terrain using a fully coupled snowpack/atmosphere model, The Cryosphere, 8, 395-415. DOI:10.5194/tc-8-395-2014
- Vionnet, V., Guyomarch, G., Naaim Bouvet, F., Martin, E., Durand, Y., Bel, C., Bellot, H., Pugliese, P. 2013. Occurrence of blowing snow events at an alpine site over a 10-year period: observations and modeling, Adv. Water Res., 55, 53-63. 
- Trouvilliez, A., Naaim-Bouvet, F., Bellot, H., Genthon C. and H. Gallee, 2015, Evaluation of the Flowcapt Acoustic Sensor for the Aeolian Transport of Snow, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 32, 1630-1641.

Measurements

The measurements made at Col are listed in the following tables. (Note: If End Year is blank, measurements are ongoing.)

Cryosphere Measurements

Element Variable Start Year End Year Frequency
SnowDepth2008Continuous
SnowDrifting/blowing2008Continuous

Atmosphere Measurements

Element Variable Start Year End Year Frequency
MetWind speed and direction2008Continuous

Last updated: 27 August 2019