PANGAEA_993938 Snow and ice surface near-infrared (NIR) images collected during RV POLARSTERN cruise PS144 Rückert, Janna Elisabeth; Bühler, Linnu; Mewes, Lars-Hendrik; Risse, Nils Snow and ice surface near-infrared (NIR) images collected during RV POLARSTERN cruise PS144 2026-05-21 PANGAEA Dataset https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.993938 Investigator Janna Elisabeth Rückert janna.rueckert@uni-bremen.de Earth Science Event label CSV text file CSV text file (File Size) Image Image (File Size) geoscientificInformation Arctic Ice station near-infrared PS144 PS144_109-1 PS144_123-2 PS144_134-1 PS144_23-1 PS144_42-1 PS144_50-1 PS144_67-1 PS144_7-1 PS144_80-1 PS144_85-1 snow Polarstern 2024-08-16 2024-09-26 Complete 84.511697 89.944844 42.692716 -150.666993 AC3 Arctic Amplification unrestricted CC-BY-4.0: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International English PANGAEA Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science https://www.pangaea.de/ Data Center Contact Michael Diepenbroek info@pangaea.de

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Bremen Bremen 28359 Germany online 20 data points text/tab-separated-values Bühler, Linnu; Rückert, Janna Elisabeth; Walbröl, Andreas; Mech, Mario; Risse, Nils; Krobot, Pavel; Ebell, Kerstin; Schnitt, Sabrina; Spreen, Gunnar (2026): Water vapor, mixed-phase clouds, precipitation and sea ice emissivity over the Central Arctic Ocean (VAMPIRE-1): remote sensing and in-situ measurements suite during POLARSTERN cruise PS144 (ArcWatch-2) [dataset bibliography]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.990496 Rabe, Benjamin; Geibert, Walter (2025): The Expedition PS144 of the Research Vessel POLARSTERN to the Arctic Ocean in 2023 /2024. Berichte zur Polar- und Meeresforschung = Reports on Polar and Marine Research, 794, 312 pp, https://doi.org/10.57738/BZPM_0794_2025

During the Polarstern cruise PS144 from August 2024 to October 2024 in the central Arctic Ocean snow and ice surface near-infrared images were collected on 10 ice stations. The device, called SnowImager (snowimager.ch), consists of a near infrared illumination system and two cameras to capture the reflected light while the housing acts as a light shield. The width and height of the inside of the box is 30 cm x 40 cm. The NIR camera records images at two dedicated wavelenghts, 850 nm and 940 nm. The specific surface area and density of the snow can be derived from these reflectance images. Calibration images were taken at the start of each station. We performed two types of measurements: Either we took images of the snow/surface scattering layer surface along transects, or, if the snow was sufficiently deep, we used the SnowImager in the excavated snowpit walls to record the vertical (in addition to the horizontal) spatial variability. Here, the NIR images also allow identification of snow layers with different snow grains (i.e., specific surface areas). All measurements were done within the vicinity of the footprint of the onboard microwave radiometers installed for the VAMPIRE project (that is, in about 25 m distance to the port bow of Polarstern mostly measured along T-shaped transects with side lengths of 5 to 7 meters). The datasets consists of the raw measurements (the photos as .dng files) and databases per ice station containing the metadata for the photos. For example, the location along a transect for each image is described in these databases. The databases are designed to be used with the appropriate SnowImager software (https://code.wsl.ch/snow-physics/snowimagerpro) in order to analyze the photos (e.g., to calculate reflectances or the specific surface area). For more information about these measurements the user is referred to Chapter 6.4 of the cruise report. ** For all details see the full metadata description at "https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.993938"!

https://doi.org/10.17815/jlsrf-3-163 Polarstern https://doi.org/10.57738/BZPM_0794_2025 The Expedition PS144 of the Research Vessel POLARSTERN to the Arctic Ocean in 2023 /2024 https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.990496 Water vapor, mixed-phase clouds, precipitation and sea ice emissivity over the Central Arctic Ocean (VAMPIRE-1): remote sensing and in-situ measurements suite during POLARSTERN cruise PS144 (ArcWatch-2) https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/268020496 AC3 DIF 9.4 2026-05-21 2026-05-21