Microwave radiometry experiment for snow in Altay, China: time series of in situ data for electromagnetic and physical features of snowpack

Abstract

Abstract. In this paper, we present a comprehensive experiment, namely, an Integrated Microwave Radiometry Campaign for snow (IMCS), in Xinjiang, China, during the snow season of 2015–2016. The campaign hosted a dual-polarized microwave radiometer operating at L, K, and Ka bands to provide minutely passive microwave observations of snow cover at a fixed site, along with daily manual snow pit observations of snow physical parameters, automatic observations of 10 min four-component radiation and layered snow temperatures, and meteorological observations of hourly weather data and soil data. To the best of our knowledge, our dataset is unique in providing continuous daily snow pit data and coincident microwave brightness temperatures, radiation and meteorological data, at a fixed site over a full season, which can be straightforwardly used for evaluation and development of microwave radiative transfer models and snow process models, along with land surface process and hydrology models. The consolidated data are available at (https://doi.org/10.11888/Snow.tpdc.270886) (Dai, 2020).