AMSRIce03: Snow Depth on Arctic Sea Ice

Barrow, Alaska and the Navy Ice Camp in the Arctic Ocean are the locations for this in situ snow depth data. Measurements were collected over sea ice as part of the joint AMSRIce03 campaign, which combined ground and aircraft observations. The dataset is provided by the principal investigators with limited NSIDC documentation support.

Use Cases

• Validating airborne snow depth retrieval algorithms based on in situ ground truth.
• Analyzing spatial variability of snow cover on sea ice for climate models.
• Studying snow-ice interface processes in the Arctic Ocean's main pack ice.

Strengths

• Provides direct in situ measurements for a key cryospheric variable (snow depth).
• Data is associated with a coordinated field campaign (AMSRIce03) combining multiple observation methods.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov signals recognized importance.

Limitations

• Documentation was provided solely by principal investigators and not thoroughly reviewed by NSIDC, indicating potential support gaps.
• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and precise temporal range are unavailable.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (2003-03-19 vs. 2026-04-10) create uncertainty about data currency.

Provenance

Source

Principal Investigator(s) for the AMSRIce03 campaign, distributed via NSIDC.

Collection Method

In situ measurements collected over sea ice.

Freshness

2026-04-10 16:35:09.547902

Geography

Barrow, Alaska area and the Navy Ice Camp in the main pack ice of the Arctic Ocean.