Hand-dug snow pit measurements (SnowEx March 2023)
What it measures. Detailed measurements from 170 hand-dug snow pits in Alaska, capturing things like snow depth and the layers and properties within the snowpack.
How it's made. Gathered on the ground by field crews during NASA's SnowEx March 2023 campaign, dug at sites chosen to span a range of snow depths, vegetation, and terrain.
How & where you'd use it. Used to calibrate and check airborne and lidar instruments measuring snow, and to ground-truth efforts to estimate how much water is locked up in snow.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2022-03-07 → 2023-03-16
- Measured byGROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS (A2 Photonic_WISe, GPS, MICROSCOPES, SNOW DENSITY CUTTER, THERMOMETERS)
- Processing levelLevel 2
- Spatial extent-149.59716, 64.69925, -147.48583, 70.08434
- FormatsCSV, Excel, JPEG, PDF
- StatusCOMPLETE
What you can do with it
- Map vegetation, forests and biomass
- Monitor ecosystem productivity and carbon
- Support habitat and biodiversity studies
Official description
The data set presents snow pit measurements collected during the NASA SnowEx March 2023 Intensive Observation Period (IOP) in Alaska, USA to use for calibration and validation with coincident airborne SWESARR and lidar measurements as part of the strategy focused on snow water equivalence (SWE) and snow depth (HS). In total, 170 snow pits were excavated between the five sites at locations representing a range of snow depth, vegetation, and topographic conditions. Three study areas represented boreal forest snow near Fairbanks, AK: Farmers Loop Creamers Field (FLCF), Caribou Poker Creek Research Watershed (CPCRW), and Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest (BCEF). Two study areas represented Arctic tundra snow: Arctic Coastal Plain (ACP) and Upper Kuparuk Toolik (UKT).
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="SNEX23_MAR23_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_CPRDBrowsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package. Official links
- Search and order NASA Earth Science data using spatial and temporal filters. Reformatting, reprojecting, and subsetting options are available for some data sets. GET DATA
- Quickly download a few files using a web browser, or access data through a command-line utility such as WGET. GET DATA
- Search data by spatial and/or temporal ranges or file name. Choose from various download options, including a Python script. GET DATA
- A Python library to search and access NASA Earth science data with just a few lines of code GET DATA
- Find more data access options and help resources. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- SnowEx23 Mar23 Snow Pit Measurements, Version 1 User Guide VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- SNEX23_MAR23_SP Revisions Log VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- SNEX23_MAR23_SP Pit Sheet Electronic Form VIEW RELATED INFORMATION