Seasonal variations of snowpack temperature and thermal conductivity of snow in the vicinity of Vostok station, Antarctica

Abstract

The data on snow the temperature which was monitored to a depth of 10 m in the vicinity of Vostok Station by the TAUTO autonomous system in 2010–2017 are presented. By analyzing seasonal temperature variations at different depth with the aid of a heat-transfer model we have inferred a relationship between relative thermal conductivity of snow and its porosity at this site. The same approach was also applied to analyze similar data obtained at Dome Fuji station in 1995–1997. It was found that the thermal conductivity of snow layers with identical density is noticeably lower at Dome Fuji than at Vostok, which point to a difference in structural characteristics of snow that determine its thermophysical properties. We demonstrate that the conduction is the dominant heat-transport mechanism which controls the temperature distribution in snow pack on the Antarctic plateau. The obtained parameters of the heat-transfer model can be used for reconstructing the past surface temperature variations from the long-term temperature measurements in the upper 100 m thick layer of the ice sheet.