Dall Sheep Snow Track Sinking Depths and Snow Properties, Alaska 2017

Alaska's Wrangell Mountains host this dataset of Dall sheep hoof sinking depths in snow tracks, with adjacent snow pit measurements of depth, hardness, and density. Data was collected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) over four days in March 2017. It includes estimated sheep age classes and track site coordinates.

Use Cases

• Modeling ungulate locomotion costs based on hoof sinking depths in snow.
• Correlating snow density and hardness measurements with wildlife track formation.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of snow properties from point measurements at track sites.
• Estimating age-class-specific movement behavior from track data and age estimates.

Strengths

• Data collection is temporally precise, occurring between March 19-22, 2017.
• Measurements are spatially anchored with site coordinates in the Wrangell Mountains, Alaska.
• Includes multiple related snow properties (depth, hardness, density) alongside biological observations.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to a single location and short time window.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Field measurements of sheep tracks and adjacent snow pits.

Time Range

March 19-22, 2017

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 19:37:48.714990; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Jaeger Mesa, Wrangell Mountains (WRST), Alaska, USA