Three-dimensional snow images by MR microscopy

MR microscopy technique was introduced to visualize and quantify the three-dimensional structure of snowpack. Since the NMR signal from the ice was week, we looked at the air space instead filling with dodecane or aniline doped with iron acetylacetonate. Four types of snow were tested: ice spheres, large rounded poly crystals, small rounded mono-crystals and depth hoar crystals. A specific specimen-cooling system was developed to keep the temperature below 0°C. In the experiments 0.5 to 2 h were necessary to accumulate the signals enough to obtain a 3D micro-image; the image matrix 1283, voxel size (200 μm)3 or 2563 (120 μm)3. Comparison with the 2D data using the conventional section plane method was also carried out and MR microscopy is proved to be a very useful method to visualize the microstructure of snowpack.