Snow optical properties are essential for the Earth climate. Snow optical properties, such as snow reflectance, are sensitivie to the snow microstructure, triggering potent climate feedbacks. Here we present a unique dataset consisting in combined characterization of the snow microstructure via X-ray images and of the snow directional reflectance using high accuracy measurements in cold room for 3 different snow samples. The dataset comprises : measurements of the snow bidirectional reflectance factor over 500–2500 nm, simulations of the snow bidirectional reflectance factor and chord length distribution estimated for X-ray images for 3 snow samples. The data are provided for 3 different snow samples.

The dataset is divided into 3 folders:data_CLD : chord length distribution estimated on the X-ray imagesoptical measurements : measurements of the bidirectional reflectance factors for the the 3 snow samplessimulations : simulations of the bidirectional reflectance factors for the the 3 snow samplesEach folder contains a readme.tex file describing all the file in the folder. All data are provided in .csv file.