Abstract
It has been observed that meltwater with extremely high ion concentration flows out during the early melting period due to ion movement from solid ice to liquid water in snowpack during the partial thaw-freeze cycle. For the sake of modeling of this phenomenon, this study attempted to formulate the non-dimensional decline rate of the chloride concentration in the solid ice during melting as a function of the decline rate of the water equivalent of the solid ice. Samples of natural snow and artificial snow melted under controlled condition for specific time were centrifuged to analyze liquid water and remained snowpack for the dissolved chloride concentration. The chloride concentration in solids continuously decreased with melting time in all the experimental cases and most of the chloride ion eluted from solid ice to liquid water in the first six hours of the melting process. On the other hand, the changes in the chloride concentration in the liquid water did not show any notable tendency. The relationship between the decline rate of the water equivalent of the solid ice and the decline rate of the chloride concentration in the solid ice was revealed to show that the latter greatly enhanced even in the case which the former was relatively small. Based on the obtained data, the decline rate of the chloride concentration in the solid ice during melting could be expressed in a simple function of the decline rate of the water equivalent of the solid ice.
