Observed and modeled snow depth in Arctic Alaska 2001–2020

Distributed snow depth measured with automated snow-probe (Magnaprobe) collected during three snow field campaigns; 6 March–5 April 2018, 6 March–2 April 2019 and 14–21 March 2020 within the general wintering range of the Central Arctic caribou Herd (CAH). Measurement locations ranged across the Interior of Brooks Range, the northern foothills of the Brooks Range, North Slope, and Coastal Plain of Alaska. Spatiotemporally distributed daily modeled snow depth data 2001–2020 is produced using SnowModel (Liston and Elder 2006a, Liston et al. 2020) over the CAH home range and extracted in caribou Geographic Positioning System (GPS) locations (not public) and aggregated for caribou movement modeling and analyses. These data were collected and produced as a part of the National Science Foundation funded project "Nutritional Landscapes of Arctic Caribou: Observations, Experiments, and Models Provide Process-Level Understanding of Forage Traits and Trajectories" and used to investigate the impact of snow on caribou winter movement and winter range selection. These data sets were collected and produced for the research reported in the publication: Pedersen, S. H., Bentzen, T. W., Reinking, A. K., Liston, G. E., Elder, K., Lenart, E. A., Prichard, A. K., Welker, J. M. (2021): Quantifying effects of snow depth on caribou winter range selection and movement in Arctic Alaska. Movement Ecology. DOI: 10.1186/s40462-021-00276-4.