Surface Mass Balance and Snow on Sea Ice Working Group (SUMup) density

• Main Authors: Lora Koenig, Lynn Montgomery
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2017
• Subjects: Greenland; Antarctica; Density; Firn; Antarctic; Antarc*; Greenland ice cores; ice core; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.18739/A26D6F

This snow density dataset was compiled by the Surface Mass Balance and Snow on Sea Ice Working Group (SUMup). This dataset includes snow density measurements over both the ice sheets, ice caps and snow on sea ice. It excludes seasonal snow on land measurements. This dataset is a community effort to distribute easy to use in-situ data to improve surface mass balance modeling and remote sensing efforts. This dataset is a compilation of work from many individual researchers. The snow/firn density subdataset of SUMup is the largest, containing over 830,000 point measurements of density at different depths. The measurement methods include different sized density cutters (generally from 100 - 1000 cc) used in snow pits, ice core sections, neutron-density methods, X-ray microfocus computer tomography, Gamma-ray attenuation and pycnometers. The majority of the observations (~94%) come from Greenland ice cores or snow pits. Antarctic data comprises ~6% of the snow density subdataset and is predominately from ice cores. The depth of the density measurements are recorded using two different methods, either the top and bottom depth or a midpoint depth. Fields of data include the date taken, latitude, longitude, start depth, stop depth, midpoint depth, density, error, elevation, method, and associated citation.