BOREAS HYD-02: Snow Water Equivalent from Microwave Data

February 1994 data from the BOREAS project cover portions of the SSA, NSA, and transect areas in the boreal forest. The dataset contains surface meteorological inputs for an energy balance model used to estimate snow water equivalent (SWE). These SWE estimates are compared with in-situ observations to assess the accuracy of airborne and spaceborne microwave retrieval algorithms.

Use Cases

• Validating microwave retrieval algorithms for SWE based on in-situ snow water equivalent data.
• Modeling snowpack energy balance using surface meteorological inputs.
• Comparing airborne and spaceborne SWE inferences with ground-based observations.
• Monitoring snow storage changes in the boreal forest region.

Strengths

• Data is part of the well-documented BOREAS project, a major ecological field campaign.
• Supports cross-validation between model-derived, in-situ, and remotely sensed SWE measurements.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA and government portals suggests established credibility.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: column names, row count, and exact file sizes are unknown.
• Conflicting license information ('other-license-specified' vs 'None') and update dates (1994 vs 2026) create uncertainty.
• Temporal coverage is limited to a single month (February 1994).

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected at BOREAS tower and ancillary sites, used as inputs to an energy balance model.

Time Range

February 1994

Freshness

2026-03-13 07:29:28.061166

Geography

Boreal forest region, covering portions of the SSA (Southern Study Area), NSA (Northern Study Area), and transect areas.