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

• 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

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 ...