ABSTRACT: Energy balance and ground thermal characteristics during periods of soil freezing, Guelph, Ontario

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This study investigates the energy balance and ground thermal characteristics associated with frost penetration and snowpack development during the 1975 and 1976 winters at two adjacent sites near Guelph. The more exposed upper site had a meagre snowpack (<2 cm) in both years, facilitating rapid frost penetration and the consequent release of large amounts of latent heat of fusion, reflected in ground heat losses in excess of 4 MJ m^-1 day^-2. These losses provided more than 74 percent of the net radiation deficit.The greater snowpack (average depth 6.8 cm) at the sheltered lower site retarded the penetration of the feezing plane and reduced the associated release of heat in the ground, which enabled the atmospheric heat fluxes to contribute 78 percent of the net radiation deficit in 1975. However, in 1976 the ground heat flux at the lower site provided more than 82 percent of the net radiation deficit due to a thinnner and later-forming snowpack compared with the previous winter.

Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology