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

Field Value
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_@context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
identifier C2143401742-ORNL_CLOUD
issued 2024-05-01
landingPage https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1841
language {en-US}
metadata_type geospatial
modified 2025-04-23
old-spatial -180.0 51.61 -107.83 72.41
programCode {026:001}
publisher ORNL_DAAC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 44fa38514734381906c0ee7cc2e06bb12e94ed78b267f56dd3894019d7d5386d
source_schema_version 1.1
temporal 1988-02-09T00:00:00Z/2018-02-10T23:59:59Z
theme {ABoVE,geospatial}
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • AmeriGEO
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • CKAN
  • GEO
  • GEOSS
  • National
  • North America
  • United States
  • climate-indicators
  • cryosphere
  • cryospheric-indicators
  • earth-science
  • snow-ice
  • terrestrial-hydrosphere
isopen False
license_id notspecified
license_title License not specified
maintainer undefined
maintainer_email uso@daac.ornl.gov
metadata_created 2025-09-24T17:28:33.334255
metadata_modified 2025-09-24T17:28:33.334265
notes 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.
num_resources 7
num_tags 14
title ABoVE: Passive Microwave-derived Annual Snowpack Main Melt Onset Date Maps, 1988-2018