Under gorgeous spring skies by the banks of the Ounasjoki river last Friday, CHARTER Arctic researchers Sirpa Rasmus and Leena Leppänen brought their snow science to the next generation of researchers. With the participation of the Grade 5 students from the Rovaniemi Steiner school students and their teacher, the principles of snow structure, snow pack, snow layers and the tools
One aspect of the CHARTER project is to gain a better understanding of snow icing events, such as happens when rain falls on snow. This affects animal movements and behaviours and hinders animals from digging through the snow. Icing also impacts plants, and are very relevant for livelihoods such as reindeer herding. Snow profile observations (by digging snow pits to
One aspect of CHARTER is gaining a better understanding of snow icing events, such as rain-on-snow events and their impacts. Snow cover layer structures and snow grains in the layers are constantly changing due to temperature differences between the snow surface and ground, and due to new snowfall. Crust layers are typically formed by melting
