Fluffy snow?

I dug a snow pit and after a day and half the strong sun has picked out the snow layers below the surface. The site has more than a metre of snowfall each year, falling in several distinct snowfall events with lots of wind and scouring of layers in between into sastrugi. Digging through the layers to measure density and temperature allows us to reconstruct the processes, but once I'd finished with it I left it open to see what happened. The different packing density of the snow crystals and the low solar angle meant different rates of ablation (mostly from sublimation, where ice becomes vapour directly, rather than melt) for different layers, leaving this very fluffy looking surface.

#iQ2300 #Antarctica #Fieldwork #FieldPhoto #PRECISEnnf #Snow #icetodon #frostodon

Long day in the field but some great data - I have literally spent 8 hours watching snow melt...

And then analysing the contents with our good old friend LISA.
#iQ2300 #Antarctica #FieldPhoto #Fieldwork #PRECISEnnf

Wasa station. After a morning of safety training and snow scooter training, we unpacked and I took our snow optical sensors for a walk to test the surface snow grain sizes. All present and correct.
A good view from the moraine over the station and the vast whiteness of the #iceSheet beyond.
#iQ2300 #Antarctica #FieldworkPhoto #OceanIceEU #PRECISEnnf

The best view from any chemistry lab in the world? Clément has spent most of the afternoon setting up LISA, tomorrow we'll run a test core through to test she's working... (Meet LISA here: http://sternaparadisaea.net/2025/09/30/meeting-lisa/)
#iQ2300 #PRECISEnnf #FieldworkPhoto #Antarctica #WasaStation

Now on to Mikkel Lauritzen who is presenting the Holocene history of the #GreenlandIceSheet - also associated with our #PRECISEnnf project

Now on to Mikkel Lauritzen who is presenting the Holocene history of the #GreenlandIceSheet - also associated with our #PRECISEnnf project