A representative density profile of the North Greenland snowpack

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: C. F. Schaller, J. Freitag, S. Kipfstuhl, T. Laepple, H. C. Steen-Larsen, O. Eisen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2016
• Subjects: envir; geo; Greenland; North Greenland; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-1991-2016; https://www.the-cryosphere.net/10/1991/2016/tc-10-1991-2016.pdf; https://doaj.org/article/3f27c756248845438a29597cbd09f85b

Along a traverse through North Greenland in May 2015 we collected snow cores up to 2 m depth and analyzed their density and water isotopic composition. A new sampling technique and an adapted algorithm for comparing data sets from different sites and aligning stratigraphic features are presented. We find good agreement of the density layering in the snowpack over hundreds of kilometers, which allows the construction of a representative density profile. The results are supported by an empirical statistical density model, which is used to generate sets of random profiles and validate the applied methods. Furthermore we are able to calculate annual accumulation rates, align melt layers and observe isotopic temperatures in the area back to 2010. Distinct relations of δ18O with both accumulation rate and density are deduced. Inter alia the depths of the 2012 melt layers and high-resolution densities are provided for applications in remote sensing.