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Full catalog/SNEX20_GM_SP
SNEX20_GM_SP·v1·dataset

Hand-dug snow pit measurements, Grand Mesa (SnowEx 2020)

SnowEx20 Grand Mesa Intensive Observation Period Snow Pit Measurements V001
hydrosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level NA PDFJPEGCSVExcel
In plain English

What it measures. Detailed measurements of the snow on the ground at 154 hand-dug pits, including how deep the snow is, how dense it is, its temperature, grain size, liquid water content, and how much water it would yield if melted (snow water equivalent). It also records the layering inside the snowpack and includes photos of each pit.

How it's made. Field teams dug snow pits by hand on Grand Mesa, Colorado, over about two weeks in winter 2020 and recorded the measurements on site.

How & where you'd use it. Helps scientists understand how mountain snowpack stores water and serves as ground-truth to check snow estimates made from aircraft and satellites.

What's measured

TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › LIQUID WATER CONTENTTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW DENSITYTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW DEPTHTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › FIRN › SNOW GRAIN SIZETERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW/ICE TEMPERATURETERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW STRATIGRAPHYTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW WATER EQUIVALENT

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2020-01-27 → 2020-02-12
  • Measured byGROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS (A2 Photonic_WISe, MICROSCOPES, SNOW DENSITY CUTTER, THERMOMETERS)
  • Processing levelLevel NA
  • Spatial extent-108.22839, 39.00511, -108.11049, 39.06532
  • FormatsPDF, JPEG, CSV, Excel
  • 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 data set contains snow pit observations from the SnowEx 2020 Grand Mesa Intensive Observation Period. Data were collected from 154 snow pits on Grand Mesa, Colorado between 27 January and 12 February 2020. The main parameters for this data set are snow temperature, snow depth, snow density, snow stratigraphy, snow grain size, liquid water content, and snow water equivalent. In addition to data files, this data set also contains site photos from each snow pit.

Get the data

snex20_gm_sp_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SNEX20_GM_SP",
    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.