Snow-Core Analysis at Mid- and High Altitude in the Snow-Pack (Abstract)

Abstract

Since 1977, we have been studying the weather and climate of a mountain area, and particularly the winter snow-pack. The area is situated in the French Alps, at an altitude of 1450-2500 m. Since winter 1982-83, we have been studying the snow-pack each week and every time we collected snow cores. We collected them at different test sites (area 1: 1850 m NW; area 2: 1800 m SE; area 3: 1600 m NW; area 4: 2000 m). The following parameters were collected at the test sites on a continuous basis throughout the winter: new and total snow depth, wind direction and precipitation (solid and liquid), snow-water equivalent (precipitation and total snow depth), standard snow profiles, and structure of the snow-pack. After data analysis, many different questions were investigated, in two respects: (1) Analytical techniques: problems of sampling snow cores (transport, conservation, evolution), and analysis of the micro-structure of the different snow layers in correlation with the macro-structure of the snow-pack. (2) Results and interpretations: do changes in the structure (macro- and micro-structure) of the snow cores take place during their conservation? Can we consider snow cores as preserving the record of the winter climate (precipitation, chemical pollution)? (3) Data archive: Constitution of snow-core data archive, in relation to the climatology of the area.