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Artificial Production of Snow

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Synonyms

Artificial snow; Man-made snow; Programmed snow; Snow production; Technical snow

Definition

Artificial snow is produced by rapidly freezing water into ice crystals under high pressure.

Introduction

The artificial production of snow serves two objectives: on the one hand, artificial snow is necessary for laboratory experiments to simulate snow and avalanche processes, on the other hand, it is produced commercially as a surrogate for natural snow to cover ski runs where natural snowfall is missing or uncertain. It is also produced in indoor centers for skiing as well as outdoors in cities for events. It can be produced in virtually all climate zones, even in hot, arid countries like Israel. Dubai hosts the world’s largest indoor ski center. Artificial snow is now produced on nearly all ski runs globally that are affected by large variations in snowfall, that have insufficient natural snowfall or that are effected by climate change. This includes the Alps, Pyrenees, Rockies,...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Mountain Institute, University of Savoy, Pôle Montagne, 73376, Le Bourget-du-Lac, France

    Carmen de Jong

Authors
  1. Carmen de Jong
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carmen de Jong .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

    Vijay P. Singh

  2. New Delhi, India

    Pratap Singh

  3. University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio, USA

    Umesh K. Haritashya

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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

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de Jong, C. (2011). Artificial Production of Snow. In: Singh, V.P., Singh, P., Haritashya, U.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2642-2_29

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