Snow depths near Toolik Field Station, Alaska 2014-2025

The Toolik Field Station (TFS) snow depth program monitors the accumulation of snow monthly near the station in three frequently studied environmental microhabitats - in the dry heath, moist acidic tundra and on Toolik Lake. The TFS snow monitoring began in response to TFS research community requests to collect baseline environmental data that would be broadly applicable and provide context to research projects conducted near TFS. Very little snow depth data is collected year round on the north slope of Alaska and what is collected is done via remote automated gauges. This is the only dataset collected by hand throughout the winter on the North Slope of Alaska. This snow depth monitoring began in January 2014 and is adaptively measured every month of the winter season. The TFS snow depth data collection protocol is based on the United States Department of Agriculture snow survey sampling guide (https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2023-11/Snow%20Survey%20Sampling%20Guide%20Handout.pdf).