Thermal conductivity of polar firn

Abstract The vast Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets are covered by many tens of meters polar firn, which is snow that years to centuries old has experienced significant metamorphism. Both ice-sheet modeling decoding satellite data require knowledge the thermal conductivity firn with depth, yet direct measurements not available for depths below top several meters. We present first effective over down 48 m. A custom guarded hot plate been designed constructed, validation this device using materials known presented. Using validated device, were made on core samples spanning from 4 m an undisturbed site near South Pole, Antarctica. Results show at Pole increases depth density. surface well-explained as a function density relationship k ( ρ ) = 0.144 e 0.00308· z 0.536 0.0144· . associated diffusivities range 19.0 28.5 2 -1