TY - Generic T1 - Geometry of patchy snowcovers T2 - 61st Annual Western Snow Conference Y1 - 1993 A1 - Shook, K. A1 - Gray, D.M. A1 - Pomeroy, J.W. KW - Ablation, Fractals, Grid-square, Model, Snow cover AB - The influence of spatial variation in snowcover water equivalent on areal snow-cover depletion and the geometry of snow patches that form during the ablation of shallow, seasonal snowcovers in open environments is discussed. A simplified snowpack ablation simulation is used to demonstrate that the fractal structure of the snowcover water equivalent causes soil and snow patches to possess fractal characteristics. This program is a distributed, grid-square model that uses a synthetically-generated snowcover and includes an algorithm for approximating the effects of local advection on melt. Fractal dimension(s) of snow patches produced by the model are shown to agree closely with the dimensions of natural ablated snowcovers determined from analyses of aerial photographs. JF - 61st Annual Western Snow Conference T3 - Proceedings of the 61st Annual Western Snow Conference PB - Western Snow Conference CY - Quebec City, Quebec UR - sites/westernsnowconference.org/PDFs/1993Shook.pdf ER -