Absorption at Microwave Frequencies in a Moist Metamorphic Snow Pack Due to Pendular Ring Accumulations of Liquid Water

The absorption coefficient of moist snow at low microwave frequencies is investigated. One geometrically realistic form of the presence of liquid water in a metamorphosed snow pack is a pendular ring. These rings form around the contact points between rounded ice grains. When averaged over all possible orientations, this shape of liquid water in the Rayleigh regime produces significantly more loss than if the same volume of water were present in a physically unrealistic form of spherical droplets. The pendular ring shape also produces significantly less loss when compared to the same volume of water in the form of a uniform coating around the ice grains, a commonly used model for the form of liquid water in moist snow.