Intercomparison of snow density measurements: bias, precision, and vertical resolution

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: Proksch, Martin, Rutter, Nick, Fierz, Charles, Schneebeli, Martin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2016
• Subjects: F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/26036/; https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-371-2016; https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/26036/1/Proksch_2016.pdf

Density is a fundamental property of porous media such as snow. A wide range of snow properties and physical processes are linked to density, but few studies have addressed the uncertainty in snow density measurements. No study has yet quantitatively considered the recent advances in snow measurement methods such as micro-computed tomography (uCT) in alpine snow. During the MicroSnow Davos 2014 workshop, different approaches to measure snow density were applied in a controlled laboratory environment and in the field. Overall, the agreement between uCT and gravimetric methods (density cutters) was 5 to 9 %, with a bias of