High resolved snow height measurements at Neumayer Station, Antarctica, 2010

At Neumayer-Station in Antarctica snow height is permanently monitored with a laser distance meter. From 2010-01-27 until 2011-10-11 the instrument was installed for test purposes on the meteorological mast some 300m south-east of the main station building. By design, the sample area of the surface is on the order of a few millimetre in diameter. Long-term trends of the measured snow height are strongly correlated with accumulation on the ice shelf at a horizontal scale of several kilometres. Short-term trends reflect dynamic changes of the surface and can be used to deduce information on surface roughness.