Snow water equivalent data from the Upper Kuparuk River watershed, Arctic Alaska, 1997-2017

Many remote areas of Alaska lack meteorological data; this is especially true for solid precipitation. Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Water and Environmental Research Center have been collecting end-of-winter snow depth, snow density, and snow water equivalent (SWE) during annual snow surveys. Snow surveys in the Upper Kuparuk watershed (130 square kilometers) provide ground-based spatially distributed snow water equivalent (SWE) measurements from 1997 to 2017. These observations do not document the total snowfall during the winter, but provide quantitative estimate of cold season precipitation on the ground at winter’s end after sublimation and redistribution by wind.阿拉斯加诸多偏远地区气象观测数据匮乏，固态降水相关数据的缺失情况尤为突出。阿拉斯加大学费尔班克斯分校水与环境研究中心的研究人员在年度积雪调查期间，持续采集冬末的雪深、雪密度与雪水当量（Snow Water Equivalent, SWE）数据。1997年至2017年间，库帕鲁克河上游流域（面积130平方千米）的积雪调查获取了空间分布的地面实测雪水当量数据。该观测数据集并未记录冬季总降雪量，而是定量估算了冬末时刻经升华与风力再分配后地表留存的冷季降水总量。