Time-lapse photos of a snowy field site — SNEX23_TLI

In plain English

What it measures. Hourly time-lapse photographs of a snowy field site near Fairbanks, Alaska, taken next to marked snow poles so changes in snow depth can be seen over time.

How it's made. Seventeen automatic cameras placed in two forest research areas captured three images a day during NASA's SnowEx 2022-2023 field campaign.

How & where you'd use it. Documenting how snow levels rise and fall through the season, providing ground-level evidence to complement and check satellite snow studies.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS › VISIBLE IMAGERY

Coverage & cadence

Time span2022-10-14 → 2024-11-06
Measured byGROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS (CAMERAS)
Processing levelLevel 0
Spatial extent-148.3622, 64.6995, -147.3943, 65.1951
FormatsJPEG
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

The dataset comprises time-lapse images captured by cameras placed near Fairbanks, AK as part of the NASA SnowEx 2022-2023 field campaign. Nine cameras were installed in the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest (BCEF) and eight cameras were installed in the Caribou-Poker Creek Research Watershed (CPCW). The time-lapse images were collected using a WingscapesTimeLapsePro camera in conjunction with a custom-made snow pole. The camera captured one image per hour between 1100 and 1300 local standard time for a total of three images a day, documenting the fluctuations in snow levels throughout the observation period.

Get the data

snex23_tli_access.py

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SNEX23_TLI",
    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.

What's measured

Coverage & cadence

What you can do with it

Get the data

Official links