ABoVE: Soil Temperature Profiles from 63 USArray Stations in Alaska, 2016-2021

63 monitoring sites across interior Alaska recorded soil temperature profiles from the surface to 1.5 meters depth between 2016 and 2021. Measurements were taken hourly or every 6 hours using HOBO data loggers, complementing existing networks for permafrost characterization. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration provides the data in 64 CSV files, along with site descriptive data for soil, vegetation, and location.

Use Cases

• Modeling permafrost thaw dynamics based on multi-year, multi-depth temperature profiles.
• Analyzing seasonal ground temperature variations based on hourly or 6-hourly measurement frequency.
• Characterizing site-specific thermal conditions based on accompanying soil, vegetation, and location metadata.
• Validating and complementing regional climate models based on in-situ sensor network data.

Strengths

• 63 spatially distributed monitoring sites provide coverage across interior Alaska.
• Measurements span 5 years (2016-2021) with high temporal frequency (hourly or 6-hourly).
• Data includes vertical profiles from the surface to a maximum depth of 1.5 meters.
• Complementary site metadata for soil, vegetation, and location is provided.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Measurement dates, depths, and frequency vary per site, which may complicate uniform analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measurements made using temperature sensors attached to HOBO data loggers at USArray program stations.

Time Range

2016-2021

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 19:51:58.743901; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Interior Alaska, within the NASA ABoVE domain.