Title mathematical and experimental problems in avalanche dynamics
Dr Jim McElwaine
DAMTP, University of Cambridge
More than a million avalanches fall throughout the world every year.
Most fall harmlessly, but the largest destroy whole towns and kill
thousands. In West Europe such large disasters are rare but even in a
good year dozens of skiers, snowboarders and climbers are killed, and
in a bad year it can be hundreds.
This lecture discusses a range of experiments and observations from
natural snow avalanches and the mathematical problems they give rise
to. These range from equations to describe the dynamics of avalanches
to the design of image processing algorithms that can detect white
snow moving over a white background.
