Publications related to Different erosion and entrainment mechanisms in snow avalanches

Mechanistic 2D flow-erosion modelling of vegetated river banks

Giovanni De Cesare, Paolo Perona, Massimiliano Schwarz

We present a simple, vertically-explicit 2D model of river bank erosion that also takes the effect of sediment stabilization by plant roots into account. The model is solved in quasi-analytical form for an exemplary non-stationary hydrograph temporal signa ...

2023

The biofilm ecology of proglacial floodplain streams

Jade Brandani

Glacial forelands figure among the most dynamic landscapes on Earth, and their formation is currently accelerating given glacier shrinkage. Draining these forelands are streams hosting unique microbial communities, which have the capacity to impact both th ...

EPFL2023

Plasma sputtering of biased electrodes in an oblique magnetic field

Stefano Alberti, Ivo Furno, Alessandro Geraldini

The surface erosion of biased electrodes immersed in a radio frequency (RF) plasma was investigated in oblique magnetic fields ranging from 0.1 T to 3.5 T. The plasma potential and density in the vicinity of the biased electrode have been measured using an ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2023

Snow transport in extreme environments: from small to large scale modeling

Daniela Brito Melo

The cold regions on Earth, such as the polar and high mountain regions, are snow covered for at least a part of the year. These snow-covered surfaces are highly dynamic, particularly under the influence of strong winds. The aeolian or wind-driven transport ...

EPFL2023

Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Snow on Central Arctic Sea Ice and its Implications

David Nicholas Wagner

This thesis presents a comprehensive investigation of the interaction between precipitation and wind-induced erosion and deposition of snow on Arctic sea ice. The study uses observations from the 2019-2020 MOSAiC expedition and makes use of the 3D snow cov ...

EPFL2023

Mercury isotope evidence for Arctic summertime re-emission of mercury from the cryosphere

Jakob Boyd Pernov, Jenny Thomas

During Arctic springtime, halogen radicals oxidize atmospheric elemental mercury (Hg0), which deposits to the cryosphere. This is followed by a summertime atmospheric Hg0 peak that is thought to resultmostly fromterrestrial Hg inputs to the ArcticOcean, fo ...

Nature Research2022

Vegetation Drastically Reduces Wind Erosion: An Implementation of the RWEQ in the Mongolian Gobi Steppe

Charlotte Gisèle Weil

Soil loss prevention is an important ecosystem service for protecting human and environmental health. Using spatiotemporal climate and environmental data of the Eastern Gobi Steppe, a region missing from previous studies of Mongolian wind-based soil erosio ...

MDPI2022

Detrainment and braking of snow avalanches interacting with forests

Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Xingyue Li, Louis Jean Henri Vedrine

Mountain forests provide natural protection against avalanches. They can both prevent avalanche formation in release zones and reduce avalanche mobility in runout areas. Although the braking effect of forests has been previously explored through global sta ...

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH2022

Three-dimensional and real-scale modeling of flow regimes in dense snow avalanches

Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Betty Sovilla, Xingyue Li

Snow avalanches cause fatalities and economic loss worldwide and are one of the most dangerous gravitational hazards in mountainous regions. Various flow behaviors have been reported in snow avalanches, making them challenging to be thoroughly understood a ...

2021

Multiscale simulation of erosive wear in a prototype-scale Pelton runner

François Avellan, Ebrahim Jahanbakhsh, Sebastián Camilo Leguizamón Sarmiento, Siamak Alimirzazadeh

The technical capacity to predict the erosion process is instrumental for the optimization of the runner designs and operation strategies of hydroelectric plants. A multiscale model of erosion recently formulated by the authors and validated on a laborator ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2020