A new dataset has been released for the SnowLab-NG campaign, which took place in Switzerland and Finland between 2019 and 2021.

ESA conducts airborne and ground-based campaigns to support the development of new instruments, and calibration and validation of existing instruments. These campaigns simulate satellite-based instruments and are conducted all over the world in support of a wide range of applications.

The SnowLab-NG campaign followed the SnowLab campaign, which took place between 2015 and 2019. The goal of SnowLab is to provide comprehensive multi-frequency, multi-polarisation, multi-temporal datasets of active and passive microwave measurements over snow-covered ground.These data are analysed to investigate the relationship between effective snow and ground parameters and the resultant signals detect by microwave radars and radiometers.

SnowLab-NG conducted two activities at Laret in Davos, Switzerland, in 2019 and 2020, and in Sodankylä, Finland, in 2020 and 2021. Though both campaigns took place during winter, the sites chosen had important differences. Sodankylä is in the Arctic Circle, while Davos-Laret is an alpine region, allowing the team to study differences in measurements in the two types of climate and terrain.

Two instruments were installed on towers at the test sites, the microwave radiometer ELBARA, and ESA’s Wide-Band Scatterometer (WBSCAT). ELBARA measured L-band brightness temperatures, while WBSCAT performed 2D azimuth and elevation scans every two hours.

Data acquired during the campaign are freely offered for download following submission of a data access request.

Learn more about SnowLab-NG and how to request the data