Insights of the seasonal evolution of an arctic snowpack from an intensive field campaign

The Arctic snowpack covers a large portion of the Earth’s surface, yet detailed snow observations in these areas are sparse compared to observations in alpine environments. The Arctic presents unique environmental conditions, leading to thin snowpacks undergoing high-temperature gradients. These conditions lead to specific evolutions of the snow microstructure, which results in peculiar snowpack properties. To improve our understanding and description of the Arctic snowpack, an eight-month-long field campaign (IVORI) was conducted in Cambridge Bay at the Canadian High Arctic Research Station, Nunavut, Canada (69°N) during the 2023-2024 winter. The campaign is based on daily acquisitions of the 3D snow microstructure at 10 μm using a cold laboratory X-ray tomograph located next to the field site, along with extensive monitoring of the meteorological conditions and traditional snow characterizations. This dataset notably contains 200 tomographic samples and 50 snow stratigraphic profiles covering the full snow depth.

Here we present the specific climatic context of the 2023-2024 winter at Cambridge Bay, along with an analysis of the evolution of the vertical profiles of density and specific surface area. Finally, a preliminary overview of the performance of snow models at this Arctic location is given, highlighting potential areas for improvement.