cohésion capillaire

OBS: cohésion: Lien existant entre les grains [de neige] à l'échelle microscopique.

OBS: Cohesion: The attraction force by which snow grains are held together as a coherent unit. This may be from bonding, interlocking crystal branches, or capillary action within the snow liquid water content.
OBS: It has been experimentally observed that a wet snowpack will remain stable at low saturation levels (up to 7%) ... all free water is attracted to the interfaces between the ice particles by capillary effects, and surface tensional forces through the liquid draw the particles together. This is classified as the pendular regime ...
OBS: The term ""capillary cohesion"" as an equivalent for ""cohésion capillaire"" has been found in a french source. However, according to the observations above, it seems to be appropriate.