ASO OLYMPEX: Snow Depth and Terrain from Airborne LiDAR

NASA's Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) OLYMPEX dataset provides high-resolution snow depth, bare earth surface, land surface classification, and RGB composite imagery at 3-meter spatial resolution. These data were collected via a Riegl Q1560 scanning LiDAR and an ITRES CASI-1500 imaging spectrometer during the Olympic Mountains Experiment (OLYMPEX) field campaign in the Pacific Northwest. The dataset includes measurements from two snow-on periods in February and March 2016, using a September 2014 flight as a no-snow baseline for depth derivation.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite snow depth retrievals from missions like GPM based on airborne LiDAR measurements.
• Modeling snow water equivalent (SWE) for hydrological forecasting using high-resolution snow depth maps.
• Classifying land surface types (e.g., vegetation, rock, snow) for ecological or terrain analysis from the provided classification layer.
• Generating digital elevation models (DEMs) of bare earth terrain from the LiDAR-derived surface data.
• Assessing changes in snow cover extent and depth between the February and March 2016 observation periods.

Strengths

• Provides very high-resolution (3m) geospatial data from calibrated airborne instruments.
• Includes temporally distinct snow-on measurements (Feb & Mar 2016) and a no-snow baseline (Sep 2014) for accurate depth calculation.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov signals importance and validation for the GPM mission.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low; specific column names, row counts, and exact file sizes are not provided.
• A conflict exists in the 'last updated' metadata, with Data.gov listing 2026-04-10 (likely an administrative update) and NASA Earthdata listing 2016-03-30 (the data collection end date).
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without further detail.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO)

Collection Method

Collected by a Riegl Q1560 scanning LiDAR and an ITRES CASI-1500 imaging spectrometer mounted on an aircraft.

Time Range

September 2014 (baseline), February 8-9, 2016, and March 29-30, 2016.

Freshness

2026-04-10 (Data.gov administrative update); data collection ended 2016-03-30.

Geography

Olympic Mountains, Pacific Northwest, United States.