SnowMicroPen Measurements on Sea Ice 2016-2017

Local-scale variations in snow density and layering on Arctic sea ice were characterized using a combination of traditional snow pit and SnowMicroPen (SMP) penetrometer measurements. The SMP profiles provide detailed information about the snow microstructure and stratigraphy and were collected to evaluate coincident airborne and satellite measurements aimed at improving the understanding of inter-annual variability of Arctic snow and sea ice properties. The measurements were acquired during two April field campaigns conducted near the time of maximum snow thickness, coinciding with NASA Operation IceBridge (17 April 2016) and ESA CryoVEx (26 April 2017). In total, 8 survey sites were evaluated within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago near Eureka (80.0°N 85.9°W) and 6 survey sites on the Arctic Ocean (spanning 83.4°N and 86.3°N), on both first (FYI) and multi-year (MYI) sea ice. The SMP measurements were recorded using a SnowMicroPen® 4 penetrometer.