Data coverage
This document presents the Concise Experiment Plan for NASA's Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) to serve as a guide to the Program as it identifies the research to be conducted under this study. Research for ABoVE will link field-based, process-level studies with geospatial data products derived from airborne and satellite remote sensing, providing a foundation for improving the analysis and modeling capabilities needed to understand and predict ecosystem responses and societal implications. The ABoVE Concise Experiment Plan (ACEP) outlines the conceptual basis for the Field Campaign and expresses the compelling rationale explaining the scientific and societal importance of the study. It presents both the science questions driving ABoVE research as well as the top-level requirements for a study design to address them. ArcticBorealCO2FluxV22448 This dataset is a synthesis of terrestrial and freshwater CO2 and CH4 fluxes from the Arctic-Boreal region aggregated to monthly timesteps. The dataset, known as ABCFlux v2, includes 1,028 unique sites and spans 1984-2024 with the majority of observations occurring after 1999. ABCFlux v2 includes surface-atmosphere CO2 fluxes of net ecosystem exchange (NEE), gross primary production (GPP), and ecosystem respiration (Reco) alongside CH4 fluxes. For aquatic ecosystems, CH4 fluxes were split into diffusive and ebullitive flux pathways and included potential emissions from transient storage in the water column, alongside CO2 and CH4 concentrations dissolved in the surface water. Fluxes were measured through a variety of methods including chamber and eddy covariance techniques alongside bubble traps, ice-surveys, and concentration-based turbulence-driven modelling in aquatic ecosystems. Supporting variables include methodological metadata (e.g., gap-filling methods, number of chamber measurement days), environmental measurements (e.g., air, water, and soil temperatures), and site-level attributes (e.g., permafrost thaw status, disturbance history). Compared with version 1, this v2 dataset includes additional variables to represent detailed descriptions of plant functional types, deep soil temperatures ( ABOLVIS1A This data set contains geotagged images collected over Alaska and Western Canada. The images were taken by the NASA Digital Mapping Camera, paired with the Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS), an airborne lidar scanning laser altimeter. The data were collected as part of NASA's Terrestrial Ecology Program campaign, the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE). ABLVIS1B This data set contains return energy waveform data over Alaska and Western Canada measured by the NASA Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS), an airborne lidar scanning laser altimeter. The data were collected as part of NASA's Terrestrial Ecology Program campaign, the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE). ABLVIS2 This data set contains surface elevation data over Alaska and Western Canada measured by the NASA Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS), an airborne lidar scanning laser altimeter. The data were collected as part of NASA's Terrestrial Ecology Program campaign, the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE). ABoVEASCENDSXCO22050 This dataset provides in situ airborne measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and water vapor concentrations, plus air temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and wind speed values over Alaska and the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada during 2017-07-20 to 2017-08-08. Measurements were taken onboard a DC-8 aircraft during this Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days and Seasons (ASCENDS) airborne deployment over portions of the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) domain. CO2 and CH4 were measured with NASA's Atmospheric Vertical Observations of CO2 in the Earth's Troposphere (AVOCET) instrument. Water vapor and relative humidity were measured with Diode Laser Hydrometer. Measurements of column-averaged dry-air mixing ratio CO2 measurements (XCO2) were taken with the CO2 Sounder Lidar instrument. The airborne CO2 Sounder is a pulsed, multi-wavelength Integrated Path Differential Absorption lidar. It estimates XCO2 in the nadir path from the aircraft to the scattering surface by measuring the shape of the 1572.33 nm CO2 absorption line. The data were collected in order to capture the spatial and temporal dynamics of the northern high latitude carbon cycle as part of ABoVE and are provided in ICARTT file format. ABoVEASCENDSBackscatter2051 This dataset provides atmospheric backscattering coefficient profiles collected during Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) deployments from 2017-07-20 to 2017-08-08 over Alaska, U.S., and the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada. These profiles were measured by the CO2 Sounder Lidar instrument carried on a DC-8 aircraft. The airborne CO2 Sounder is a pulsed, multi-wavelength Integrated Path Differential Absorption lidar that estimates column-averaged dry-air CO2 mixing ratio (XCO2) in the nadir path from the aircraft to the scattering surface. In addition to XCO2, the lidar receiver recorded the time-resolved atmospheric backscatter signal strength as the laser pulses propagated through the atmosphere. Raw lidar data were converted to the atmospheric backscatter cross-section product and the two-way atmosphere transmission, also known as attenuated backscatter profiles. These ASCENDS flights were coordinated with the 2017 Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) campaign and are provided in ICARTT format. ABoVEASCENDSMerge2114 This dataset provides in situ airborne measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), water vapor concentrations, air temperature, pressure, and wind speed and direction as well as airborne remote sensing measurements of column average CO2 collected during Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) deployments from 2017-07-20 to 2017-08-08 over Alaska, US, and the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada. CO2 and CH4 were measured with NASA's Atmospheric Vertical Observations of CO2 in the Earth's Troposphere (AVOCET) instrument. Water vapor and relative humidity were measured with Diode Laser Hydrometer. Measurements were taken onboard a DC-8 aircraft. The ASCENDS flights were coordinated with the 2017 Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) campaign. The data are provided in ICARTT format along with an archive of flight videos. ABoVEPBandSAR1657 This dataset provides estimates of soil geophysical properties derived from Airborne Microwave Observatory of Subcanopy and Subsurface (AirMOSS) P-band polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) data collected in August and October of 2014, 2015, and 2017 over 12 study sites (with some exceptions) across Northern Alaska. Soil properties reported include the active layer thickness (ALT), dielectric constant, soil moisture profile, surface roughness, and their respective uncertainty estimates at 30-m spatial resolution over the 12 flight transects. Most of the study sites are located within the continuous permafrost zone and where the aboveground vegetation consisting mainly of dwarf shrub and tussock/sedge/moss tundra has a minimal impact on P-band radar backscatter. SoilActiveLayerPropertiesAK2315 This dataset provides soil active layer characteristics from nine locations across Alaska. Soil samples were collected in 2016 except for one site which was sampled in 2018. Soil cores were collected from each site using a steel barrel and plastic sample tube attached to a hand drill. At the majority of sites, samples were taken from each end of three 30-m transects (i.e. samples collected at the 0 m and 30 m location of each transect). The entire thawed horizon (active layer) was sampled where possible, and the length of cores varies among sites. Cores were kept frozen until analysis in the lab. Samples were secti
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