Methane Flux Measurements from Alaskan Thermokarst Lakes, July 2018

NASA's ABoVE dataset provides diffusive methane (CH4) fluxes collected from two thermokarst lakes in interior Alaska's Goldstream Valley during July 2018. Measurements were made using a mobile, closed chamber technique with a Los Gatos Research spectrometer, capturing fluxes from littoral zones, shorelines, and upland vegetation. The in situ data were used to verify spatial patterns in methane flux detected by NASA's AVIRIS-NG airborne spectrometer.

Use Cases

• Modeling methane emission rates from thermokarst lakes based on in situ flux measurements.
• Validating airborne remote sensing data (e.g., AVIRIS-NG) with ground-truth methane observations.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of methane flux decay with distance from water bodies.
• Studying plant-facilitated methane transport in Arctic wetland ecosystems.

Strengths

• Data collected using a Los Gatos Research Ultraportable Cavity Ring-down Spectrometer, a high-precision instrument.
• Chamber design allowed measurement of plant-facilitated fluxes from vegetation up to 1.5 meters tall.
• In situ measurements provide direct validation for NASA's AVIRIS-NG remote sensing data.

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is limited to two lakes in a single region during one month (July 2018).

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

In situ measurements using a mobile, closed chamber technique with a recirculating spectrometer.

Time Range

July 2018

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 19:48:21.405152; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Goldstream Valley, north of Fairbanks, interior Alaska, USA