BOREAS TE-20: Soil Maps for Boreal Forest Sites

1994 field mapping by Dr. Hugo Veldhuis provides vector soil data for model development. The data cover 1-kilometer diameters around NSA tower sites and the NSA-MSA region. These ARC/INFO EXPORT files support analysis of forest ecosystem dynamics in the BOREAS project.

Use Cases

• Modeling forest ecosystem dynamics based on soil classification data.
• Analyzing soil-landform relationships in boreal forest sites.
• Calibrating remote sensing data with ground-truthed soil vector layers.
• Studying permafrost and soil texture distribution around research towers.

Strengths

• Data originates from expert field mapping conducted in 1994.
• Provides localized coverage (1-km diameter) around specific NSA tower sites.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA EarthData indicates established use.

Limitations

• Key metadata like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (1994 vs. 2026) create uncertainty about data currency.
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without details.

Provenance

Source

Dr. Hugo Veldhuis (original field mapper), BOREAS TE-20 team, NASA.

Collection Method

Original field mapping in 1994, later converted to ARC/INFO EXPORT vector files.

Time Range

1994

Freshness

1994-12-31 (field collection date); a 2026 administrative update is noted but does not reflect new data.

Geography

BOREAS Northern Study Area (NSA) and NSA-MSA, specifically 1-kilometer diameters around NSA tower sites.