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Full catalog/SNEX21_SSR
SNEX21_SSR·v1·dataset

True surface colors over Colorado snow (aircraft)

SnowEx21 Senator Beck Basin and Grand Mesa, CO AVIRIS-NG Surface Spectral Reflectance V001
cryosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 2 BILASCII
In plain English

What it measures. The true reflected colors of snow-covered ground at two Colorado sites, capturing how snow brightness and snow's optical properties changed over the spring.

How it's made. Collected by the AVIRIS-NG imaging spectrometer flown on a B-200 aircraft during NASA's SnowEx 2021 campaign, on three dates across March and April.

How & where you'd use it. Helps snow scientists study how snow reflects sunlight (its albedo) and how snow ages and evolves, useful for understanding snowmelt and improving snow models.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › REFLECTANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2021-03-19 → 2021-04-29
  • Measured byB-200 (AVIRIS-NG)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-109, 37, -107, 40
  • FormatsBIL, ASCII
  • 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 apparent surface spectral reflectance imagery which demonstrates snow albedo and snow optical property evolution across two distinct snow-covered environments in Colorado. Data collection occurred in the spring of 2021 as part of the NASA SnowEx mission. The two study sites (Senator Beck Basin and Grand Mesa) were chosen for their contrasting terrain and vegetation characteristics. Data collection occurred over three days (19 March, 1 April, and 29 April) to produce a time series data set across varying snow conditions.

Get the data

snex21_ssr_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SNEX21_SSR",
    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.