GPM OLYMPEX: Snow Depth Monitoring System

From September 5, 2014 to August 20, 2016, primarily during fall 2015 to spring 2016, this dataset provides ground validation measurements for the Olympic Mountain Experiment (OLYMPEX). It contains snow depth, temperature, and relative humidity data collected via snow poles, time-lapse cameras, sensors, and manual surveys on the Olympic Peninsula in the Pacific Northwest, United States. The data are available in netCDF-3 format, with hourly JPG images of snow poles and manual survey results in a Microsoft Excel file.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite-based snow depth and precipitation estimates based on ground-based snow pole and sensor measurements.
• Analyzing snowpack accumulation and melt dynamics using hourly time-lapse camera imagery.
• Calibrating atmospheric models with co-located temperature and relative humidity data from field sites.
• Conducting manual snow survey analysis on specific overflight days for targeted comparison with airborne observations.

Strengths

• Provides multi-year coverage from 2014 to 2016, with intensive data collection during the primary 2015-2016 field campaign.
• Includes data from multiple instruments (poles, cameras, sensors, surveys) for cross-validation at up to 3 cameras/poles per site.
• Hosted and maintained by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, indicating institutional authority.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all platform descriptions.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' on Data.gov, lacking clear usage terms.
• Platforms show conflicting last updated dates (2026-04-10 on Data.gov vs. 2016-07-26 on NASA Earthdata), creating uncertainty about data freshness.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected using snow depth poles, time lapse cameras, temperature/relative humidity sensors, and manual snow surveys.

Time Range

September 5, 2014 through August 20, 2016

Freshness

2026-04-10 02:33:08.190953

Geography

Olympic Peninsula, Pacific Northwest, United States