Home – Home – Jornals – Earth’s Cryosphere 2025 number 2

The thickness and thermal properties of snow cover play a significant role in the formation of the thermal regime of the ground surface and an urban heat island in regions with cold or temperate climate. This article describes the results of laboratory and field studies of the snow thermal properties in Yekaterinburg carried out in 2023/24. The thermal conductivity vs density dependence for different types of snow, including snow contaminated with pollutants typical of Yekaterinburg, was investigated in laboratory using the needle probe method. A regional dependence of thermal conductivity of the snow on its density was plotted. The snow cover depth and the vertical distribution of snow density were measured in situ at the geothermal test site of the Institute of Geophysics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Based on these data and taking into account the obtained density vs thermal conductivity dependence, time sections of changes in the density, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and thermal effusivity of the snow cover in the 2023/24 season were constructed.