Weekly snow depth from stakes in Greenland (Summit Station)
What it measures. Weekly readings of snow height from an array of 121 stakes planted in the snow at Summit Station, high on the Greenland ice sheet, showing how much snow piles up over time.
How it's made. Collected on the ground by people physically measuring stakes each week — not from a satellite — to build a long-term local record of snowfall and accumulation.
How & where you'd use it. Helps scientists understand snowfall and how the ice sheet gains mass, and serves as ground-truth to check satellite and airborne missions like ICESat-2.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2003-08-06 → 2025-12-17
- Measured byGROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS (SNOW MEASURING ROD)
- Processing levelLevel Not provided
- Spatial extent-38.43951, 72.57752, -38.43651, 72.57843
- FormatsCSV
- 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 data set provides weekly snow stake height measurements in Summit Station, Greenland, near the ice divide. The array comprises 121 snow stakes and helps understand snowfall processes and contextualizes snow accumulation, which is a major component of the region’s surface mass balance. As a long-term climate record, this data set provides valuable ground validation for ICESat-2 and other satellite and airborne missions.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="NSIDC-0812",
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 NSIDC_CPRDBrowsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package. Official links
- Search and order NASA Earth Science data using spatial and temporal filters. Reformatting, reprojecting, and subsetting options are available for some data sets. GET DATA
- Quickly download a few files using a web browser, or access data through a command-line utility such as WGET. GET DATA
- Search data by spatial and/or temporal ranges or file name. Choose from various download options, including a Python script. GET DATA
- A Python library to search and access NASA Earth science data with just a few lines of code GET DATA
- Find more data access options and help resources. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Weekly Snow Stake Array Measurements, Summit Station, Greenland, Version 1 User Guide VIEW RELATED INFORMATION