The 2021-2022 field campaign at Col De Porte had an early start, with first significant snowfalls occuring in late November. There was already about 70cm of snow on December 2nd for the first day of fieldwork of the season. Despite a strong thaw episode around Christmas which reduced snow height dramatically, sparse snowfall events occurred from January and the snow cover remained continuous until the last day of fieldwork on April 12. In between these two dates, from the windy and cold winter days of January to the bright spring sun of March, snow pits were dug and measurements were performed by the IVORI team once every week. These measurements consisted in manual density profiles at 3cm-resolution obtained from snow cutter, SSA profiles measured at 3cm-resolution using the DUFISSS instrument, as well as SMP profiles.

In addition, on-site X-ray tomography was performed almost systematically for the first time in the history of the observation site. To this end, layers of interest were identified and tracked over the season. Each week, snow cores were sampled from these layers and immediately measured by the CT-scanner installed in the cold room of Col de Porte. On January 24, we managed to scan a whole profile of the snowpack, which was 91cm thick on that day. All these measurements together with the traditional hourly and daily snow and meteorological record historically monitored at Col de Porte constitutes a unique dataset that will be very valuable for the validation of the snow model under development which is at the heart of the IVORI project.

Updated on 5 July 2023