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

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.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer undefined
Last Updated April 23, 2025, 22:34 (UTC)
Created April 23, 2025, 22:34 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
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catalog_@id https://data.nasa.gov/data.json
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catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
citation Pan, C.G., P.B. Kirchner, J.S. Kimball, and J. Du. 2021. ABoVE: Passive Microwave-derived Annual Snowpack Main Melt Onset Date Maps, 1988-2018. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1841
graphic-preview-description 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)
graphic-preview-file https://daac.ornl.gov/ABOVE/guides/Main_Melt_Onset_Dates_Fig1.jpg
harvest_object_id ee8bace0-7b7b-4bd4-9f54-b6c2fe633fbf
harvest_source_id 61638e72-b36c-4866-9d28-551a3062f158
harvest_source_title DNG Legacy Data
identifier C2143401742-ORNL_CLOUD
issued 2024-05-01
landingPage https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1841
language {en-US}
metadata_type geospatial
modified 2024-05-02
programCode {026:001}
publisher ORNL_DAAC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash e66be142e373056c8cdba86de153ce32a958643806b5706a47157f493743e055
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial -180.0 51.61 -107.83 72.41
temporal 1988-02-09T00:00:00Z/2018-02-10T23:59:59Z
theme {ABoVE,geospatial}