Surface Elevation, Snow, Ice, and Depth Measurements along a transect at Teshekpuk Lake, Alaska on 10 May 2023

This dataset contains detailed measurements of snow depth, ice thickness, lake depth, freeboard, and surface elevation collected along a ~25-kilometer transect at Teshekpuk Lake, Alaska, on 10 May 2023. These observations were gathered as part of the Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) activities in support of NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission, which aims to provide high-resolution observations of Earth’s surface water dynamics, and done in collaboration with the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded PermaSense project and the Teshekpuk Lake Observatory. The transect spans a gradient from terrestrial tundra to bedfast to floating lake ice environments, capturing the spatial variability of late-winter snow and ice conditions across the largest Arctic lake in Alaska. Measurements collected along the transect include Global Positioning System (GPS)-based surface elevation (World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) ellipsoid height), transect distance relative to the lake shore, snow depth, ice thickness, lake depth, freeboard, ice type, snow density, and snow water equivalent, along with site-specific observational notes. These in situ measurements are critical for evaluating SWOT’s Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) observations over ice-covered freshwater systems during the Arctic spring. The dataset offers valuable insights into snow and ice processes on Arctic lakes and serves as a key resource for improving remote sensing algorithms for ice-covered water bodies.