Bidirectional permeability measurements of polar firn

Abstract

AbstractIce cores provide a valuable archive of climate history. for a complete understanding of this archive, it is important to understand air–snow exchange processes through the snow and firn in order to fully decode the ice-core record. Transport processes through the snow and firn are dependent upon their physical properties. In this paper, bidirectional permeabilities from selected sections of a 13 mcore from Summit, Greenland, are presented. Differences between lateral and vertical permeabilities are evident throughout the core in permeameter data and in microstructure statistics. Both lateral and vertical permeabilities are consistent with overall patterns of previous polar permeability data with depth. the differences between lateral and vertical permeability measurements for some samples can be attributed to equivalent sphere radius. Further studies examining mean free-path length may be helpful in chemical modeling and in deriving an equation relating permeability to microstructure.