Chemical composition and snow physical properties of 35 profiles in a snow trench at Dome C, East Antarctica (2019)

The data set provides the chemical composition and physical snow properties of a 50m long and 1.5m deep snow trench sampled at Concordia Station (Dome C) in December 2019. The chemistry data includes 35 profiles of concentration of anions (SO42− ,NO2^− , NO3− , MSA, Cl−, Br−, oxalate, F−, acetate and formate) and cations (Li+, Na+, NH4+ , K+, Mg2+, and Ca2+). 31 profiles where sampled at 3 cm resolution and 4 profiles are sampled at 1.5 cm resolution. The measurements were carried out at Institut des Geosciences de l’Environnement (IGE), Grenoble and Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven. Throughout the files, trench snow pits are labeled by the letter "P" followed by their horizontal distance in meters to the left-most profile of the trench, from P0 to P50. The physical properties include 33 snow density and specific surface area (SSA) profiles and 201 Snow Micro Pen (SMP) measurements (Schneebeli et al., 1999) to estimate snow hardness. SSA was measured at 3 cm resolution using ASSSAP (Arnaud et al., 2011, Libois et al. (2014). Snow density was measured at 3 cm resolution using a scale and squared metal sampler tool with a known volume. SSA and density were measured along the same profiles as chemistry, except for P0.3 and P47.7 who share the same SSA and density profiles as P0 and P48, respectively. SMP measurements were realized every 25 cm along the trench (201 profiles). The vertical resolution is extremely fine (0.004 mm) but the measurements were averaged at 1 cm resolution to obtain a macroscopic significance. The snow hardness probe was set to penetrate up to 150 cm, but it stopped earlier for several profiles due to too hard layers, leaving a few incomplete profiles.