Sound absorption of snow

Recently fallen snow possesses good sound-absorbing properties. This fact is well-known and confirmed by measurements. Is the filigree structure of snowflakes decisive? In principle we know that the sound-absorbing capacity of a porous material is dependent on its structure. But until now the question as to which structural characteristics are significant has been insufficiently answered. Detailed investigations of snow are to explain this fact by precise measurements of the sound absorption, by tomographic recording of the structure and ba theoretical modeling of the acoustic processes.