Glacier wind

The glacier wind belongs to the katabatic winds , so it is a cold fall wind . It is caused by air that cools down just above a glacier . Since this cold air has a higher density compared to the warm air in front of the glacier, an air pressure gradient is formed and thus the effect of a pressure gradient force occurs . The air therefore flows away from the glacier and can possibly reach very high wind speeds . The glacier winds usually do not have a large vertical extent, but have a very strong influence on the vegetation in their area.

The effect of the glacier winds was particularly dramatic in the cold periods , as their enormous ice surfaces caused a particularly strong, but above all, extremely directionally stable wind. These absorbed particles above the glaciers and transported them to their upstream area, where they sedimented into loess . This often developed into the agriculturally very productive loess soils . A large part of the loess areas, especially in Germany, can therefore be traced back to glacier winds.

Today you can find glacier winds, for example, under the Rosenlauigletscher in Switzerland, where the sun only touches the valley floor below the glacier around noon.