Schaller, Christoph Florian; Kipfstuhl, Sepp; Steen-Larsen, Hans Christian; Freitag, Johannes; Eisen, Olaf (2017): Spatial variability of density stratigraphy and melt features for two polar snowpacks in Greenland and East Antarctica [dataset publication series]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.884003
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Abstract:
Density is a fundamental property of polar snowpacks and of particular importance for various applications such as remote sensing, surface-mass-balance estimates and paleoclimatic ice-core studies. As a result, there is growing interest in quantifying and understanding the stratigraphy of the snowpack and its spatial variability. Melting and refreezing significantly impact the density layering. Melt frequencies observed in polar ice cores are commonly used as markers for extreme summer temperatures. Moreover, the evolution of a seasonal cycle in density with depth is not well-understood as all of these aspects require extensive field data. To provide a larger sample size, we analyzed snow cores up to 5 m depth from two sampling sites on the Greenlandic and East Antarctic plateaus and determined the spatial distribution of melt features along two orthogonal trench walls of 60 m length and 4 m depth for the Greenland site. We quantify how the observed variability of melt features is strongly influencing the ability to interpret single-core melt records. In particular, prominent vertical melt pipes indicate deep penetration of water in cold Greenlandic plateau firn. For the spatial variability in density, we find a much larger homogeneity of the snowpack along the main wind direction and an imprint of surface features orthogonal to it. Thus, within a certain area (such as the footprint of an altimeter) the stratigraphic variability is directionally dependent and estimation of a representative profile (e.g. from snow cores or modeling) is not straightforward.
Related to:
Schaller, Christoph Florian; Kipfstuhl, Sepp; Steen-Larsen, Hans Christian; Freitag, Johannes; Eisen, Olaf (in prep.): On the influence of polar snowpack stratigraphy on the interpretation of ice-core and altimetry data. Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface
Further details:
Details of the position of the snow trenches. Trenches.png
Project(s):
East Greenland Ice-core Project (EGRIP)
Glaciology @ AWI (AWI_Glac)
Coverage:
Median Latitude: 15.374000 * Median Longitude: -21.556000 * South-bound Latitude: -75.010000 * West-bound Longitude: -35.980000 * North-bound Latitude: 75.630000 * East-bound Longitude: 0.080000
Date/Time Start: 2016-05-19T00:00:00 * Date/Time End: 2017-01-27T00:00:00
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-3.0)
Size:
40 datasets
Download Data
Datasets listed in this publication series
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_00 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883965
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_01 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883966
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_02 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883967
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_03 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883968
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_10 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883969
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_11 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883970
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_12 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883971
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_13 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883972
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_20 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883973
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_21 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883974
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_22 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883975
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_23 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883976
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_30 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883977
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_31 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883978
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_32 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883979
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core CLP_33 in snow trench CLP near Kohnen station, East Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883980
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTO0 in snow trench LTO at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883981
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTO1 in snow trench LTO at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883982
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTO2 in snow trench LTO at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883983
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTO3 in snow trench LTO at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883984
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTO4 in snow trench LTO at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883985
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTO5 in snow trench LTO at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883986
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTO6 in snow trench LTO at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883987
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTO7 in snow trench LTO at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883988
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTO8 in snow trench LTO at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883989
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTO9 in snow trench LTO at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883990
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTO10 in snow trench LTO at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883991
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTW0 in snow trench LTW at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883992
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTW1 in snow trench LTW at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883993
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTW2 in snow trench LTW at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883994
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTW3 in snow trench LTW at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883995
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTW4 in snow trench LTW at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883996
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTW5 in snow trench LTW at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883997
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTW6 in snow trench LTW at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883998
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTW7 in snow trench LTW at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883999
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTW8 in snow trench LTW at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.884000
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTW9 in snow trench LTW at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.884001
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Snow density of core EG16_LTW10 in snow trench LTW at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.884002
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Melt features in snow trench LTO at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.884005
- Schaller, CF; Kipfstuhl, S; Steen-Larsen, HC et al. (2017): Melt features in snow trench LTW at the EGRIP field site, Greenland. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.884006