Constraining snow water equivalent of wet snowpacks in Southeast Alaska

Abstract Quantifying snow water equivalent (SWE) with ground-penetrating radar (GPR) in a warming climate is complicated by the incidence and variability of liquid water in snow. Snow surveys conducted during the melt season serve as a valuable analog to conditions under future warming. Here, we determine the variability of wet snowpack properties (relative permittivity and density) to quantify their impact on SWE estimates using GPR. We collected spatially continuous snowpack measurements with 400 MHz GPR in 2012 and 2021 across repeat transects (∼150 km each year) along with spring and summer snow depth and density measurements from snow pits and snow cores. Snow relative permittivity values ranged from 2.06 to 2.62 in 2012 and 2.11 to 5.11 in 2021, resulting in calculated volumetric liquid water content (LWC) between 1.7% and 5.7% in 2012 and 2.1% and 16% in 2021. This variability in snow relative permittivity results in SWE uncertainties of 8% —33%, with more extreme cases reaching 13%—45%. We attribute this uncertainty to spatial and temporal variability in LWC when using GPR to estimate SWE. As snowpacks become wetter with rising atmospheric temperatures, GPR surveys should include in situ relative permittivity measurements to reduce depth and SWE interpretation uncertainties.