"compacted snow" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It refers to snow that has been compressed or pressed down, making it denser and more solid. Example: "The roads were treacherous due to the layer of compacted snow that had turned to ice overnight."
FIRN is the name given by glaciologists to the partly compacted snow which lies, sometimes hundreds of metres thick, on top of glaciers, ice shelves and ice sheets.
Ground camps enable researchers to make accurate recordings and ensure that CryoSat's radar is reflecting off the ice itself, not just compacted snow.
Professor Zarnecki said the probe landed on a surface that appears to have the consistency of soft-to-medium compacted snow.
It had always been that the roads around town were better in winter, when a hard crust of dry, compacted snow filled in all the potholes and offered plenty of traction.
It's frozen and compacted snow that fell on Antarctica 100,000 years ago, and each year is a layer about this big, and so you have to take this into account.
Outstanding features are the Illecillewaet Glacier, which has an area of 10 square miles (26 square km) and falls more than 3,500 feet (1,100 m) from its névé (partially compacted snow at its upper end), and the Nakimu Caves in the Cougar Valley.
His preparations extend to the ramp itself, called a kicker and made by compacting snow into a huge block and then shaping it to the curve decreed by the sport's governing body, the International Ski Federation.
The wind also compacts snow, increasing its density, thus enabling animals to move more easily over its surface while hampering their ability to dig through to find food below.
Firn, ( German: "of last year", ) also called Névé, partially compacted granular snow that is the intermediate stage between snow and glacial ice.
Early snow groomers were used by residents of rural areas to compress the snow close to their homes, and consisted of a heavy roller hauled by oxen which compacted the snow to make a smooth surface for sledging.
We had some rains that compacted the snow and made it very heavy.
