Impact of the sampling procedure on the specific surface area of snow measurements with the IceCube

Abstract

The specific surface area (SSA) of snow can be directly measured by X-ray computed tomography or indirectly measured using the reflectance of near-infrared light. The IceCube (IC) is a well-established spectroscopic instrument that uses a near-infrared wavelength of 1310 nm. We compared the SSA of six snow types measured with both instruments. We measured significantly higher values with the IC, with a relative percentage difference of between 20 % and 52 % for snow types with an SSA between 5 and 25 m2 kg−1. We found no significant difference for snow with an SSA between 30 and 80 m2 kg−1. The difference is statistically significant between snow types but not uniquely related to the SSA. We suspected that particles artificially created during the sample preparation were the source of the difference. We sampled, measured and counted these particles to conduct numerical simulations with the TwostreAm Radiative TransfEr in Snow (TARTES) radiation transfer solver. The results support the hypothesis that these small, artificial particles can significantly increase the reflectivity at 1310 nm and, therefore, lead to an overestimation of the SSA.