Meteorological, snow and soil data (2013–2019) from a herb tundra permafrost site at Bylot Island, Canadian high Arctic, for driving and testing snow and land surface models

Abstract

Abstract. Seasonal snow covers Arctic lands 6 to 10 months of the\nyear and is therefore an essential element of the Arctic geosphere and\nbiosphere. Yet, even the most sophisticated snow physics models are not able\nto simulate fundamental physical properties of Arctic snowpacks such as\ndensity, thermal conductivity and specific surface area. The development of\nimproved snow models is in progress, but testing requires detailed driving\nand validation data for high Arctic herb tundra sites, which are presently\nnot available. We present 6 years of such data for an ice-wedge polygonal\nsite in the Canadian high Arctic, in Qarlikturvik valley on Bylot Island at\n73.15∘\u2009N. The site is on herb tundra with no erect vegetation and\nthick permafrost. Detailed soil properties are provided. Driving data are\ncomprised of air temperature, air relative and specific humidity, wind\nspeed, shortwave and longwave downwelling radiation, atmospheric pressure,\nand precipitation. Validation data include time series of snow depth,\nshortwave and longwave upwelling radiation, surface temperature, snow\ntemperature profiles, soil temperature and water content profiles at five\ndepths, snow thermal conductivity at three heights, and soil thermal\nconductivity at 10\u2009cm depth. Field campaigns in mid-May for 5 of the 6 years\nof interest provided spatially averaged snow depths and vertical profiles of\nsnow density and specific surface area in the polygon of interest and at\nother spots in the valley. Data are available at\nhttps://doi.org/10.5885/45693CE-02685A5200DD4C38 (Domine et al., 2021). Data\nfiles will be updated as more years of data become available.\n