Simple relations for the close-off depth and age in dry-snow densification

• Main Authors: Salamatin A., Lipenkov V.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: Annals of Glaciology; ice core
• Online Access: https://dspace.kpfu.ru/xmlui/handle/net/136731

A physical model for the snow/firn densification process (Salamatin and others, 2006) and Martinerie and others' (1992, 1994) correlation for the firn density at the pore closure are employed to perform a scale analysis and computational experiments in order to deduce simplified relations for the close-off depth and ice age in quasi-stationary ice formation conditions. The critical snow density at which ice-grain rearrangement stops is used to take into account variability of snow structures subjected to densification. The results obtained are validated on a representative set of ice-core data from 22 sites which covers wide ranges of present-day temperatures and ice accumulation rates. A simple analytical approximation for the density-depth profile is proposed.