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Full catalog/SNEX17_UWScat
SNEX17_UWScat·v1·dataset

Ground radar scans of snow (SnowEx 2017)

SnowEx17 Ground-Based UWScat Ku- and X-Band Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave Radar V001
land NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 2 ASCII
In plain English

What it measures. Records how strongly radar signals bounce back off snow on the ground, measured from a ground-based instrument at different signal angles and polarizations, along with the raw return strength at each distance from the antenna.

How it's made. Collected by a ground-based radar (not a satellite) during the SnowEx 2017 field campaign at Grand Mesa, Colorado.

How & where you'd use it. Mainly a detailed reference dataset for scientists studying how radar interacts with snowpack, helping improve how future satellites measure snow.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › RADAR › RADAR CROSS-SECTION

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2017-02-21 → 2017-02-25
  • Measured byGROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS (SCATTEROMETERS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-108.09457, 39.01764, -108.03255, 39.05385
  • FormatsASCII
  • 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

This data set consists of ground-based scatterometer data acquired during the SnowEx 2017 campaign at Grand Mesa, Colorado, USA, a snow-covered, forested study site about 40 miles east of the city of Grand Junction, CO. The data comprise operational parameters used during data acquisition, Mueller matrices for each acquisition, and the nearfield-corrected normalized radar cross section (NRCS) in VV, VH, HV, and HH polarizations. Range profile data are also provided for each scan which report the raw power returned as a function of range from the antenna.

Get the data

snex17_uwscat_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SNEX17_UWScat",
    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_CPRD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.