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Full catalog/sbuskylerimpacts
sbuskylerimpacts·v1·dataset

Ground radar tracking storms and precipitation

SBU X-band Phased Array Radar (SKYLER) IMPACTS
land NASA GHRC_DAAC Level 1A netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Detailed radar readings of clouds and falling snow, including signal strength, motion toward or away from the radar, and several polarization measurements that reveal the shape and type of ice and snow particles.

How it's made. Collected by Stony Brook University's ground-based X-band phased-array radar (SKYLER) during the IMPACTS winter-storm field campaign, saved in netCDF format.

How & where you'd use it. Supports research into how snowbands form and evolve along the U.S. Atlantic Coast and aims to improve snowfall measurement and forecasting.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › RADAR › RADAR REFLECTIVITYSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › RADAR › SPECTRUM WIDTHSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › RADAR › RADIAL VELOCITY

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2022-01-17 → 2023-02-28
  • Measured byGROUND STATIONS (DOPPLER RADAR)
  • Processing levelLevel 1A
  • Spatial extent-77.4867, 40.1501, -71.266, 43.695
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The SBU X-band Phased Array Radar (SKYLER) IMPACTS dataset consists of polarimetric radar data collected by the Stony Brook University (SBU) X-band Phased Array Radar (SKYLER) during the Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) field campaign. IMPACTS was a three-year sequence of winter season deployments conducted to study snowstorms over the U.S. Atlantic Coast (2020-2023). The campaign aimed to (1) Provide observations critical to understanding the mechanisms of snowband formation, organization, and evolution; (2) Examine how the microphysical characteristics and likely growth mechanisms of snow particles vary across snowbands; and (3) Improve snowfall remote sensing interpretation and modeling to significantly advance prediction capabilities. SKYLER provided detailed observations of cloud and precipitation microphysics, specifically ice and snow processes. These data include reflectivity, mean velocity, spectrum width, linear depolarization ratio, differential reflectivity, differential phase, specific differential phase, co-polarized correlation coefficient, and signal-to-noise ratio. The dataset files are available from January 17, 2022, through February 28, 2023, in netCDF-4 format.

Get the data

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="sbuskylerimpacts",
    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 GHRC_DAAC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.