Snow datasets for validation and comparisons

[emiliom]

An initial list for reference and follow-ups, based on recent discussions and resources in this repo. I'll flesh it out with more links and brief descriptions over time, and possibly split off each dataset into individual issues or markdown documents if warranted.

• SNODAS (see repo README.md)
• NASA SNOWEX project/campaign data: https://snow.nasa.gov/campaigns/snowex, https://nsidc.org/data/snowex
• SNOTEL (USDA NWCC)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNOTEL
  • https://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/, https://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/snotel-wereports.html, https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/wcc/home/quicklinks/imap, https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/wcc/home/
  • NWCC AWDB web services (SOAP based)
  • A Unified R Interface to SCAN/SNOTEL Data. 2020-2-19. Dylan Beaudette is the first author
  • ulmo and CUAHSI WOF web services
  • https://ulmo.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html#module-ulmo.cuahsi.wof
  • https://github.com/uwescience/Python-for-geosciences/blob/master/20170307/ulmo-Snotel-cuahsiwof.ipynb
  • https://github.com/waterhackweek/tsdata_access/blob/master/Part2-ulmo_nwis_and_cuahsi.ipynb
  • http://hiscentral.cuahsi.org/pub_network.aspx?n=241
• NASA satellite remote sensing standard snow products?
• CoCoRaHS?
• CZO sites. http://criticalzone.org/national/
• NEON sites and possibly airborne remote sensing data. https://www.neonscience.org/

[emiliom]

Wrzesien, M. L., Durand, M. T., Pavelsky, T. M., Kapnick, S. B., Zhang, Y., Guo, J., & Shum, C. K. 2018. A new estimate of North American mountain snow accumulation from regional climate model simulations. Geophysical Research Letters, 45, 1423-1432. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076664

Nice publication that uses SNOTEL, SnoDAS and other relevant datasets, and puts them in a broader context. See in particular this:

We compare modeled SWE with ground observations from snow pillows. Daily SWE measurements are from the Snowpack Telemetry network (SNOTEL), the California Department of Water Resources Data Exchange Center, the British Columbia Ministry of Environment, and Alberta Environment and Parks.

Plus the gridded mountain snow (SWE) climatology dataset they produce may be relevant for CSO.

[emiliom]

Cho, E., Jacobs, J. M., & Vuyovich, C. M. (2020). The value of long‐term (40 years) airborne gamma radiation SWE record for evaluating three observation‐based gridded SWE data sets by seasonal snow and land cover classifications. Water Resources Research, 56, e2019WR025813. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR025813. This article is discussed in this summary: Shultz, D. (2020), Snowpack data sets put to the test, Eos, 101, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EO141900. Published on 30 March 2020.

Molotch, N. P., and Bales, R. C. (2005), Scaling snow observations from the point to the grid element: Implications for observation network design, Water Resour. Res., 41, W11421, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005WR004229