How deep Alaska soil thaws each summer, from radar (2017) — ABoVE_ReSALT_InSAR_PolSAR_V3_2004

In plain English

What it measures. Estimates of how deep the soil thaws each summer in Alaska and northwest Canada (the 'active layer' above permanently frozen ground), plus seasonal ground sinking and soil moisture through the soil column, at 30-m detail.

How it's made. Derived from airborne radar (L- and P-band SAR from NASA/JPL's UAVSAR) flown during the 2017 ABoVE campaign, processed to retrieve thaw depth and soil moisture at 51 sites.

How & where you'd use it. Helps scientists track how far northern permafrost soils thaw each year and how wet they are, important for understanding climate change in cold regions.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › FROZEN GROUND › ACTIVE LAYERLAND SURFACE › SOILS › PERMAFROSTLAND SURFACE › SOILS › SOIL MOISTURE/WATER CONTENTLAND SURFACE › FROZEN GROUND › PERMAFROSTCLIMATE INDICATORS › TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE INDICATORS › PERMAFROST MELT

Coverage & cadence

Time span2017-06-19 → 2017-09-16
Measured byGULFSTREAM 1000 (695A) (UAVSAR)
Processing levelLevel 3
Spatial extent-166.733, 57.8294, -110.418, 71.5212
Formatsmultiple
StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

Measure sea ice, snow cover and glaciers
Watch ice-sheet elevation change
Track freeze/thaw and permafrost

Official description

This dataset provides estimates of seasonal subsidence, active layer thickness (ALT), the vertical soil moisture profile, and uncertainties at a 30 m resolution for 51 sites across the ABoVE domain, including 39 sites in Alaska and 12 sites in Northwest Canada. The ALT and soil moisture profile retrievals simultaneously use L- and P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data acquired by the NASA/JPL Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) instruments during the 2017 Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) airborne campaign. The data are provided in NetCDF Version 4 format along with a python script for estimating soil volumetric water content from data.

Get the data

above_resalt_insar_polsar_v3_2004_access.py

import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ABoVE_ReSALT_InSAR_PolSAR_V3_2004",
    version="3",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from ORNL_CLOUD

Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.

Official links

Earthdata Search allows users to search, discover, visualize, refine, and access NASA Earth Observation data. GET DATA
OpenDAP URL USE SERVICE API
Collection Bundle URL GET DATA
ORNL DAAC Data Set Documentation VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
ABoVE: Active Layer Thickness from Airborne L- and P- band SAR, Alaska, 2017, Ver. 3: ABoVE_ReSALT_InSAR_PolSAR_V3.pdf VIEW RELATED INFORMATION