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Full catalog/SNEX23_CR
SNEX23_CR·v1·dataset

Where radar reflectors were placed in the field (SnowEx23)

SnowEx23 Corner Reflector Location and Orientation V001
land NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 2 Text FileJPEG
In plain English

What it measures. A catalog of where radar corner reflectors were placed in northern Alaska during a snow field campaign, including each reflector's location and how it was oriented.

How it's made. Compiled from ground installations during NASA's SnowEx 2023 campaign, where reflectors were set out by hand to calibrate radar and study how radar interacts with snow and forests — not a satellite product.

How & where you'd use it. A reference for calibrating and interpreting airborne and satellite radar data; mostly used by the radar and snow scientists working with that campaign's imagery.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › PLATFORM CHARACTERISTICS › CALIBRATIONSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › SENSOR CHARACTERISTICS › GEOLOCATION

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2022-09-21 → 2023-11-30
  • Measured byGROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS (GPS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-149.47469, 64.69868, -148.27903, 68.49908
  • FormatsText File, JPEG
  • 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 contains an inventory of corner reflectors installed in Northern Alaska, USA, as part of the NASA SnowEx 2023 field campaign (Vuyovich et al., 2024). Corner Reflectors (CRs) are objects with known response characteristics used to calibrate or study radar returns from airborne and spaceborne imagery. The SnowEx Alaska CRs were installed in situ between October 2022 and October 2023 for the following SnowEx Alaska intensive observation periods (IOPs): October 2022, March 2023, and October 2023. During the SnowEx Alaska field campaigns, CRs served two primary purposes. First, “engineering corner reflectors” were deployed to calibrate radar imagery and ensure precise backscatter measurements. Second, an array of “science corner reflectors” was installed to investigate the interaction between radar and forests. CRs were deployed at 32 locations across two SnowEx Alaska study areas: 9 in the Arctic tundra at the Upper Kuparuk Toolik (UKT) study area and 23 in the boreal forest at the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest (BCEF) study area.

Get the data

snex23_cr_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SNEX23_CR",
    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.