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Full catalog/SNEX23_SSA
SNEX23_SSA·v1·dataset

Snow grain structure from laser (SnowEx 2023)

SnowEx23 Laser Snow Microstructure Specific Surface Area Data V001
cryosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 2 CSV
In plain English

What it measures. Vertical profiles of how reflective snow is and how much surface area its grains have (a measure of grain size and structure), collected in snow pits across Alaska.

How it's made. Measured on the ground during the NASA SnowEx 2023 campaign using handheld laser integrating-sphere devices, with reflectance converted to grain surface area during processing.

How & where you'd use it. Helps scientists understand snow structure and validate snow measurements from satellites; the dataset's makers recommend using the IceCube or IRIS readings over the test InfraSnow ones.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW MICROSTRUCTURE › SPECIFIC SURFACE AREA

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2023-03-06 → 2023-03-16
  • Measured byGROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS (IRIS, IceCube, InfraSnow)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-149.597, 68.528, -148.612, 70.085
  • FormatsCSV
  • 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 contains vertical profiles of snow reflectance and specific surface area (SSA) from the Fairbanks region of central Alaska (the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest, the Caribou Poker Creek watershed and Farmers Loop/Creamer’s Field), and a coastal tundra environment in the North Slope region of northern Alaska (the Arctic coastal plain and Upper Kuparuk Toolik), collected as part of the NASA SnowEx 2023 field campaign in March 2023. Reflectance was measured in snow pits using three different integrating sphere laser devices: an A2 Photonic Sensor IceCube (1310 nm), an IRIS (InfraRed Integrating Sphere) system (1310 nm), and an InfraSnow SSA sensor (945 nm). Measured reflectance values were converted to SSA during data processing. It is recommended that data users work with either the IceCube or IRIS data, as the InfraSnow data was collected primarily for testing of the instrument’s capabilities. Snow-off SSA data from these same study sites are available as <a href="https://nsidc.org/data/snex23_ssa_so/versions/1">SnowEx23 Laser Snow Microstructure Specific Surface Area Snow-off Data, Version 1</a>.

Get the data

snex23_ssa_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SNEX23_SSA",
    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.