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Full catalog/SNEX21_TS_SP
SNEX21_TS_SP·v1·dataset

Hand-dug snow pit measurements over time (SnowEx 2021)

SnowEx21 Time Series Snow Pits V001
hydrosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level NA CSVExcelJPEG
In plain English

What it measures. Repeated snow pit measurements taken through a single winter, recording snow depth, temperature, density, layering, grain size, wetness, and water content.

How it's made. Collected by hand at 24 sites across the Western U.S. during the 2021 SnowEx field campaign, with most sites revisited weekly to track how the snowpack evolved.

How & where you'd use it. Shows how a snowpack changes week to week, valuable for water-supply forecasting and for validating satellite and airborne snow measurements.

What's measured

TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › LIQUID WATER CONTENTCRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW DENSITYCRYOSPHERE › SEA ICE › SNOW DEPTHCRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › FIRN › SNOW GRAIN SIZECRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW/ICE TEMPERATURECRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW STRATIGRAPHYCRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW WATER EQUIVALENTCRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › WETNESS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2020-11-16 → 2021-05-27
  • Measured byGROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS (A2 Photonic_WISe, GPS, SNOW DENSITY CUTTER, THERMOMETERS)
  • Processing levelLevel NA
  • Spatial extent-116.12351, 37.9071, -105.86093, 47.0607
  • FormatsCSV, Excel, JPEG
  • 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

The data set is a time-series of snow pit measurements obtained by the SnowEx community during the 2021 field campaign. Between November 2020 and May 2021 data from 247 snow pits were collected at 24 unique sites distributed over 4 states (CO, ID, MT, UT) throughout the Western United States. Five of the unique sites had a single visit to establish baseline conditions, while the remaining 19 sites had 3 or more repeat visits throughout the season, with a median visit count of 11.5. On a weekly interval, a snow pit was dug approximately 1 m away from the previous week’s snow pit. Available measured parameters are: snow depth, snow temperature, snow density, stratigraphy, grain size, manual wetness, liquid water content (LWC), and snow water equivalent (SWE). Also available are photos of the field notes and snow pit sites.

Get the data

snex21_ts_sp_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SNEX21_TS_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.