Changes in surface area and concentrations of semivolatile organic contaminants in aging snow.

During the winter of 1999/2000 five snowpacks at Turkey Lake Watershed east of Lake Superior were sampled immediately after falling and again after several days of aging for the analysis of specific snow surface area and the concentrations of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The snow surface could be determined with a relative coefficient of variation of 6% using frontal chromatography, measuring the retention of ethyl acetate, a substance with known adsorption coefficient on the ice surface. The snow surface area of fresh snow varied from 1000 to 1330 cm2/g and was higher for snow falling during colder days.