UNDISTURBED ECOSYSTEM RESEARCH 



Snow cover and summer climate 



Abiotic 



Carl Benson* 

 Dennis Trabant 

 Gunter Waller 

 Jerry Brown* 

 Don Vietor 



University of Alaska 

 University of Alaska 

 University of Alaska 

 USA GRREL 

 USACRREL 



During the 1969-1970 winter, the snowpack of arctic Alaska was significantly less than 

 normal. The maximum snow depth recorded by the U.S. Weather Bureau at Barrow was only 39% 

 of the mean value over the 9-year period beginning with the 1961-62 winter (Table 111). This light 

 snow cover was particularly evident at site 1. By the first few days of June the area was more 

 than 50% snow free. Figure 7 is an oblique aerial photo taken on 4 June showing the snow-free 

 character of site 1 and the accumulation m the polygon troughs and in the Footprint Greek 

 channel. 



Tlie snowpack can generally be subdivided into two distinct layers. The upper layer consists 

 of hard, fine-grained (0.5- to 1.0-mm diam) wind-packed snow with density between 0.35 and 0.45 

 g/cm'. Tlie lower layer consists of loosely consolidated depth-hoar crystals (up to 1 cm diam) 

 with density of 0.25 to 0.35 g/cm'. There frequently is a gradation from the hardest part of the 



Figure 7. Aerial oblique photograph of sites 1 and 2 and Footprint Creek 

 channel showing the snow cover on 4 June 1970. 



''Principal authors. 



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