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Abstract

There exist quite a few studies comparing measurements of snow density taken with different snow samplers. On the other hand, there are less comparisons between measurements of bulk snow density, that is the density of the full snowpack, and layer based, continuous snow density profiles recorded concurrently at the same site. On the study plot Weissfluhjoch, located at 2536 m asl above Davos, bulk snow density is measured since the winter 1937. Starting in the late eighties, however, about one fifth of these measurements are accompanied by parallel measurements of snow density profiles with snow samplers such as density cutters of various shapes, half-liter cylinders, the electronic Denoth device, or the SnowMicroPen. Sometimes even more than one parallel measurement is available.In this contribution we will present the full data set and conduct a thorough comparison of (a) bulk snow density measurements vs layer based, continuous snow density profiles to assess the difference statistics between them and (b) intercompare snow density profiles to unveil advantages and disadvantages of both different samplers and different sampling methods.