Kiessig fringe Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
A Kiessig fringe is an oscillation in reflected intensity caused by wave interference between contributions from the two sides of a thin film. For specular neutron scattering at grazing angle and wavelength , the normal wave vector transfer is . Well above the critical edge, a film of thickness contributes a relative wave phase approximately , giving fringe spacingThus closely spaced fringes indicate a thicker film. As a calculated example, spacing corresponds to about . Interface surface roughness, contrast, additional layers and instrumental resolution affect the fringe pattern; thickness is inferred with an appropriate reflectivity model, especially near the critical edge.[ref]
Understanding PNR Data Features by National Institute of Standards and Technology. Thickness fringes, critical edge and their relation to layer thickness and scattering-length-density contrast
Here is downstream distance, the wetted cross-sectional area, the section-averaged downstream velocity, and the lateral water input per channel length and time. Thus is local water storage and the divergence of discharge. Their balance is mass conservation.
The momentum terms and are local and advective acceleration. The bed slope gives the downstream gravitational acceleration . Bed shear stress acting over wetted perimeter produces resisting force per unit mass ; the hydraulic radius is . Finally is the hydrostatic free-surface pressure-gradient term in the chosen bed-following description. The Saint-Venant approximation depth-averages the flow, assumes a long shallow geometry and hydrostatic pressure, and closes the boundary shear through a roughness law.
Glacier sliding is motion of the ice base relative to its bed, distinct from internal ice deformation. Near a melting bed, basal water, pressure-melting/refreezing around obstacles and creep past bed roughness can permit motion; a cold frozen bed can suppress it. A simple sliding law is increasing in basal traction, for example on the positive-traction branch, with resistance also affected in richer models by roughness and basal water pressure.
Slow ice motion has negligible inertial acceleration. In a long shallow glacier, leading vertical stress is hydrostatic and longitudinal stress gradients are neglected relative to transverse shear gradients. Resolving gravity downslope and normally yields the two stated balances. This approximates a two-dimensional slab/valley centreline; lateral drag, rapidly varying geometry and strong longitudinal-stress regions need additional terms.
With a stress-free surface,Put and , assuming positive driving shear for the stated power law. Integrating from the bed givesThe surface speed is . Mass conservation, with measured as ice-equivalent thickness accumulation, is .
Choose , , and , with . Scale accumulation with . The dimensionless basal law and parameters areThe resulting flux is exactly .