Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
4676231 Cold Regions Science and Technology 2010 6 Pages PDF
Abstract

Snow density is one of the key properties to characterize a snow cover. We present diffuse near-infrared transmittance measurements with an integrating sphere setup in the laboratory. We analyze 8 snow samples taken from melt forms, decomposed, rounded, faceted and machine made snow. Reference measurements of specific surface area (optically equivalent grain size) and density are done by micro-computed tomography and used as input for transmittance calculations. A diffuse flux extinction model cannot be applied to simulate transmittance as our setup cannot be approximated by an infinite snow block thickness. Calculations with a more intricate radiative transfer model (DISORT) agree with our measurements within the estimated grain size and density variability for all probed natural snow types. Only our machine made snow shows a morphology which cannot be modeled by DISORT. Thus, our results show for the first time a direct experimental correlation between transmittance and snow specific surface area and density without the need for an empirical fitting parameter. We feel this to be an important step towards a possible high-resolution, quantitative optical measurement method to determine snow density in combination with an independent specific surface area measurement.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Earth and Planetary Sciences Earth and Planetary Sciences (General)
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