ABSTRACT
Arctic, it covers the surface for nine or more months. Snow fall is related to the volume of water vapor in the air, a volume that is temperature dependent. Therefore, the actual amount of snow that falls is limited in quantity. Once it falls, it tends to retain its solid form until melt season. However, because most of the Arctic has low-lying vegetation (tundra), snow drifting is extensive. On flat surfaces, such as lake ice, the snowpack is thin or even missing. Uneven surfaces, such as river banks, trap snow into sizable drifts, some of which may last through most of the summer.
