ABoVE: Passive Microwave-derived Annual Snowpack Main Melt Onset Date Maps, 1988-2018

Description

This dataset provides the annual date of snowpack seasonal beginning melt (i.e., main melt onset date, MMOD) across northwest Canada; Alaska, U.S.; and parts of far eastern Russia at 6.25 km resolution for the period 1988-2018. MMOD was derived from the daily 19V (K-band) and 37V (Ka-band) GHz bands from the Making Earth Science Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) Calibrated Enhanced-Resolution Passive Microwave (PMW) EASE-Grid Brightness Temperature (Tb) Earth System Data Record (ESDR). The PMW MMOD dataset was validated using the transition date from Freeze Degree Days (FDD) to Thaw Degree Days (TDD) from in situ air temperature observations from 31 SNOw TELemetry network (SNOTEL) observations, and compared to the established Freeze-Thaw ESDR (FT-ESDR) spring onset date. The resulting MMOD data record is suitable for documenting the spatial-temporal impacts of MMOD variability in ecosystem services, wildlife movements, and hydrologic processes across the ABoVE domain. The data from 1988-2016 included a coastal mask removing coastal pixels due to potential water contamination from coarse brightness temperature observations (Dersken et al., 2012). There is not a coastal mask for the 2017-2018 data. The full data are included, and data users should be aware that coastal values can be adversely affected by adjacent water bodies.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
21 This link allows direct data access via Earthdata login https://daac.ornl.gov/daacdata/above/Main_Melt_Onset_Dates/
21 ORNL DAAC Data Set Documentation https://daac.ornl.gov/ABOVE/guides/Main_Melt_Onset_Dates.html
21 ABoVE project site https://above.nasa.gov
21 Search results for publications that cite this dataset by its DOI. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=10.3334%2FORNLDAAC%2F1841
33 ABoVE: Passive Microwave-derived Annual Snowpack Main Melt Onset Date Maps, 1988-2018: Main_Melt_Onset_Dates.pdf https://data.ornldaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/public/above/Main_Melt_Onset_Dates/comp/Main_Melt_Onset_Dates.pdf
22 Spatial extent of snowpack main melt onset dataset (MMOD) extending from the Russian Far East across Alaska into Canada's Northwest Territories and British Columbia. The map also includes the GRDC river gauging locations (blue diamonds) used at Eagle, Stevens Village, and Pilot basins (black outlines). Locations of river ice breakup observations (white circles), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) stations (orange triangles), and SNOw TELemetry network (SNOTEL) stations (purple triangles) are shown. Source: Pan et al. (2021) https://daac.ornl.gov/ABOVE/guides/Main_Melt_Onset_Dates_Fig1.jpg
21 Data set Landing Page DOI URL https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1841

Tags

  • snow-ice
  • climate-indicators
  • cryosphere
  • terrestrial-hydrosphere
  • cryospheric-indicators
  • earth-science

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