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The inhomogeneous snow distribution found in alpine terrain is the result of wind and precipitation interacting with the snow surface. During major snowfall events, preferential deposition of snow and transport of previously deposited snow often takes place simultaneously. Both processes, however, are driven by the local wind field, which is influenced by the local topography. In this study, the meteorological model Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) was used to compute mean flow fields of 50-m, 25-m-, 10-m-, and 5-m grid spacing to investigate snow deposition patterns resulting from two snowfall events on a mountain ridge in the Swiss Alps. Only the initial adaptation of the flow field to the topography is calculated with artificial boundary conditions. The flow fields then drive the snow deposition and transport module of Alpine3D, a model of mountain surface processes. The authors compare the …