Brief communication: Light-absorbing impurities can reduce the density of melting snow

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: O. Meinander, A. Kontu, A. Virkkula, A. Arola, L. Backman, P. Dagsson-Waldhauserová, O. Järvinen, T. Manninen, J. Svensson, G. de Leeuw, M. Leppäranta
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2014
• Subjects: envir; geo; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-991-2014; http://www.the-cryosphere.net/8/991/2014/tc-8-991-2014.pdf; https://doaj.org/article/9a56283bc35f4a54a308f0b5d56369b2

Climatic effects of black carbon (BC) deposition on snow have been proposed to result from reduced snow albedo and increased melt due to light-absorbing particles. In this study, we hypothesize that BC may decrease the liquid-water retention capacity of melting snow, and present our first data, where both the snow density and elemental carbon content were measured. In our experiments, artificially added light-absorbing impurities decreased the density of seasonally melting natural snow. No relationship was found in case of natural non-melting snow. We also suggest three possible processes that might lead to lower snow density.