Surface snow density along an overland traverse between Kohnen Station and former Plateau Station (East Antarctica) ...

Surface mass balances of polar ice sheets are essential to estimate the contribution of ice sheets to sea level rise. Uncertain snow and firn densities lead to significant uncertainties in surface mass balances, especially in the interior regions of the ice sheets, such as the East Antarctic Plateau...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Weinhart, Alexander Helmut, Freitag, Johannes, Hörhold, Maria, Kipfstuhl, Sepp, Eisen, Olaf
Format: Dataset
Language:English
Published: PANGAEA 2021
Subjects:
Antarctica
density
DML
East Antarctica
Kohnen
snow
Event label
Location
LONGITUDE
LATITUDE
ELEVATION
DATE/TIME
Density, snow, mean
Density, snow, standard deviation
Number of profiles
Snow/ice sample
Volumetric measurement
ANT-Land_2016_COFI
Kohnen Station
Antarc*
Antarctic
Dronning Maud Land
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.928079
https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.928079
Description
Summary:Surface mass balances of polar ice sheets are essential to estimate the contribution of ice sheets to sea level rise. Uncertain snow and firn densities lead to significant uncertainties in surface mass balances, especially in the interior regions of the ice sheets, such as the East Antarctic Plateau (EAP). Robust field measurements of surface snow density are sparse and challenging due to local noise. Here, we present a snow density dataset from an overland traverse in austral summer 2016/17 on the Dronning Maud Land plateau. The sampling strategy using 1 m carbon fiber tubes covered various spatial scales, as well as a high-resolution study in a trench at 79°S, 30°E. The 1 m snow density has been derived volumetrically, and vertical snow profiles have been measured using a core-scale microfocus X-ray computer tomograph. With an error of less than 2%, our method provides higher precision than other sampling devices of smaller volume. With four spatially independent snow profiles per location, we reduce the ...

Similar Items