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Full catalog/Dall_Sheep_Snowpack_1602
Dall_Sheep_Snowpack_1602·v1·dataset

How Dall sheep respond to snow (Alaska, 2005-2008)

ABoVE: Dall Sheep Response to Snow and Landscape Covariates, Alaska, 2005-2008
hydrosphere NASA ORNL_CLOUD Level 4 netCDF-4 classic
In plain English

What it measures. Daily estimates of snow depth and snow density across a study area in Alaska, paired with data on where 30 GPS-collared Dall sheep went and the landscape features around them.

How it's made. The snow values were generated with the SnowModel tool, combined with terrain data and MODIS snow measurements from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites, then linked to the sheep's tracked locations.

How & where you'd use it. Built to study how Dall sheep move in response to changing snow conditions, useful to wildlife ecologists and managers studying animal behavior in snowy mountain environments.

What's measured

TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW DEPTHBIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION › ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES › MAMMALS › EVEN-TOED UNGULATESLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TOPOGRAPHIC EFFECTSLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATIONTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW DENSITY

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2005-09-01 → 2008-08-31
  • Measured byMODELS (Computer) · Terra (MODIS) · Aqua (MODIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 4
  • Spatial extent-154.526, 59.976, -153.033, 61.0517
  • FormatsnetCDF-4 classic
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Follow rainfall, floods and surface-water extent
  • Track soil moisture and the onset of drought
  • Monitor lakes, rivers and groundwater storage
Official description

This dataset provides daily estimates of snow depth and snow density for the study area in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve (LCNPP), Alaska. The data were generated using SnowModel and used as snow covariates along with landscape covariates in modeling efforts to study Dall sheep movements in response to dynamic snow conditions. Thirty adult Dall sheep (12 male, 18 female) were captured and outfitted with global positioning system (GPS) collars programmed to acquire locations every seven hours. Given the individual sheep locations, their distances to land cover (e.g., shrub, forest, glacier), landscape characteristics (e.g., elevation, terrain ruggedness index (TRI), vector ruggedness measure (VRM), slope, and aspect), snow depth and density, MODIS normalized difference snow index (NDSI), and other covariates were determined and are provided in the environmental data file. The snow density and depth data are provided at 25-m, 100-m, 500-m, 2000-m, and 10000-m grid resolutions, at 1-day increments, and cover the period September 1, 2005 through August 31, 2008. The sheep, snow, and landscape data cover the years 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Get the data

dall_sheep_snowpack_1602_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="Dall_Sheep_Snowpack_1602",
    version="1",
    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.