Twelve years of snow temperature monitoring (2013-2025) from a High-Arctic tundra permafrost site at Bylot Island, Canada
Type: dataset
Abstract: We present a detailed twelve-year dataset for an ice-wedge polygonal site in the Canadian High-Arctic, on Bylot Island at 73.15°N, 80°W which can be used to drive and test snow and land surface models. The site has prostrate vegetation and features thick continuous permafrost. Data are from 11 July 2013 to 1 August 2025. Continuous gap-free, quality-checked data with hourly measurements are presented. We provide driving data for energy budget calculations: air temperature at 2.3 m height, relative and specific humidity at 2.3 m height, atmospheric pressure, wind speed at 2.3 m height, shortwave downwelling radiation, longwave downwelling radiation, and precipitation as rain and snow. Model validation data are shortwave upwelling radiation, shortwave albedo, long-wave upwelling radiation, surface temperature, snow height, snow temperature at five heights, ground temperature and ground volume liquid water fraction at five depths. Measurements of snow thermal conductivity at three heights and ground thermal conductivity at three depths are provided every other day. Data on snow physical measurements from field campaigns in mid-May for nine of the twelve years are presented. Measurements provided are vertical profiles of snow density, snow specific surface area and snow thermal conductivity. Date/time used are UTC. Data are provided as TAB and netCDF. This data set comprises measurements of snow temperature. Thermistors were placed in July 2014 at 2 and 17 cm heights. In July 2015, thermistors were added at 7, 27 and 37 cm. In July 2018, the thermistors were lowered by 2 cm to 0, 5, 15, 25 and 35 cm. Data >0°C or when the thermistor was not covered by snow were deleted. There is no quality flag since all data were obtained in the same manner. No gap-filling was performed. A few snow temperature data points for the 2013-2014 winter are available in the snow thermal conductivity time series data file.
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7214558359