Snow height and air temperature were measured by an autonomous platform, deployed on sea ice. The resulting time series describes the evolution of snow height as a function of place and time in sample intervals of 1 hour. The Snow Buoy consists of four independent sonar measurements representing the area (approx. 10 m²) around the buoy. In addition to snow height and air temperature, geographic position (GPS), barometric pressure, and an internal ice temperature were measured. Negative values of snow height occur if surface ablation continues into the sea ice. Thus, all snow height measurements describe the surface elevation relative to the original snow-ice interface. Differences between single sensors indicate small-scale variability of the snow pack around the buoy. The data sets has been processed, including the removal of obvious inconsistencies (missing values). Records without snow height data may still be used for sea ice drift analyses.Some data sets contain only relative changes in snow height, because no initial readings of absolute snow height are available.

Supporter: van Caspel, Mathias; Haas, Christian; Kaleschke, Lars; Maass, Nina; Itkin, Polona; Bublitz, Anne; Granskog, Mats A; Bratrein, Marius; Spreen, Gunnar; Mahoney, Andrew R; Rigor, Ignatius; Stautzebach, ElenaThis data set will be continuously extended by new buoys.