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  • This set of files includes downscaled historical estimates of monthly total precipitation (in mm, no unit conversion necessary) from 1901 - 2005, at 15km x 15km spatial resolution. They include data for Alaska and Western Canada. Each set of files originates from one of five top ranked global circulation models from the CMIP5/AR5 models and RCPs, or is calculated as a 5 Model Average. These outputs are from the Historical runs of the GCMs. The downscaling process utilizes CRU CL v. 2.1 climatological datasets from 1961-1990 as the baseline for the Delta Downscaling method.

  • A dataset of landfast ice extent along the Alaska coast of the Beaufort Sea and adjacent waters in Canada spanning the winters of 1996-2023. Landfast ice extent is defined as the area between the coast and the seaward landfast ice edge (SLIE), meaning that small areas of open water than can form at the coast springtime will not be represented. Spatial resolution is 100 m. Compilation of the dataset is described in detail by Mahoney et al (2024). In brief, it is derived from three sources: From 1996-2008, the dataset is derived from analysis of sequential synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from the RadarSAT and EnviSAT constellations, as described by Mahoney et al (2014); From 2008-2023, the data represent an average landfast extent identified in ice charts from the U.S. National Weather Service Alaska Sea Ice Program (ASIP) and the U.S. National Ice Center (NIC). Within each GeoTIFF file there are 5 different pixel values representing different characteristics: 0 - Not Landfast Ice 32 - Coast Vector Shadow 64 - Out of Bounds 128 - Land 255 - Landfast ice The file naming convention is as follows: beaufort_$YYYYMMDD_$source_slie.tif For example, the name beaufort_20170302_asip_and_nic_average_slie.tif indicates the file represents data for March 2, 2017 and that the data is derived from an average of the ASIP and NIC data sources. These data were updated on August 21, 2025 to rectify the omission of some NIC chart data sources for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons.

  • This set of files includes downscaled future projections of vapor pressure (units=hPa) at a 1km spatial scale. This data has been prepared as model input for the Integrated Ecosystem Model (IEM). There can be errors or serious limitations to the application of this data to other analyses. The data constitute the result of a downscaling procedure using 2 General Circulation Models (GCM) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5) for RCP 8.5 scenario (2006-2100) monthly time series and Climatic Research Unit (CRU) TS2.0 (1961-1990,10 min spatial resolution) global climatology data. Please note that this data is used to fill in a gap in available data for the Integrated Ecosystem Model (IEM) and does not constitute a complete or precise measurement of this variable in all locations. RCPs: 8.5 Centers, Model Names, Versions, and Acronyms: National Center for Atmospheric Research,Community Earth System Model 4,NCAR-CCSM4 Meteorological Research Institute,Coupled General Circulation Model v3.0,MRI-CGCM3 Methods of creating downscaled relative humidity data: 1. The GCM input data are distributed as relative humidity along with the CRU CL 2.0, therefore no conversion procedure was necessary before beginning the downscaling procedure. 2. Proportional Anomalies generated using the 20c3m Historical relative humidity data 1961-1990 climatology and the projected relative humidity data (2006-2100). 3. These proportional anomalies are interpolated using a spline interpolation to a 10min resolution grid for downscaling with the CRU CL 2.0 Relative Humidity Data. 4. The GCM proportional anomalies are multiplied by month to the baseline CRU CL 2.0 10min relative humidity climatology for the period 1961-1990. Creating a downscaled relative humidity projected time series 2006-2100. 5. Due to the conversion procedure and the low quality of the input data to begin with, there were values that fell well outside of the range of acceptable relative humidity (meaning that there were values >100 percent), these values were re-set to a relative humidity of 95 at the suggestion of the researchers involved in the project. It is well known that the CRU data is spotty for Alaska and the Circumpolar North, due to a lack of weather stations and poor temporal coverage for those stations that exist. 6. The desired output resolution for the AIEM modeling project is 1km, so the newly created downscaled time series is resampled to this resolution using a standard bilinear interpolation resampling procedure. 7. The final step was to convert the downscaled relative humidity data to vapor pressure using the calculation below, which uses a downscaled temperature data set created utilizing the same downscaling procedure. EQUATION: saturated vapor pressure = 6.112 x exp(17.62 x temperature/(243.12+temperature)) vapor pressure = (relative humidity x saturated vapor pressure)/100

  • These files include climatological summaries of downscaled historical and projected decadal average monthly derived snow variables and summaries at 771 meter spatial resolution across Alaska. There are three types of files: 1). The historical and future snowfall water equivalent (SWE) in millimeters, produced by multiplying snow-day fraction by decadal average monthly precipitation and summing over 6 months from October to March to estimate the total SWE on April 1. 2). The historical and future ratio of SWE to total precipitation (SFEtoP) in percent. SFEtoP is calculated as (SWE / total precipitation) and also represents the six month October to March period. 3). The future difference in SWE with respect to the historical baseline (dSWE) in percent. dSWE is calculated as ((future SWE – historical SWE) / historical SWE) * 100. These data are also summary for the six month October to March period. The historical baseline period is 1970-1999, (file naming convention “H70.99”) and data are calculated from downscaled CRU TS 3.1 data. Projected variables exist for RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 emission scenarios and for 5 GCMs: NCAR-CCSM4, GFDL-CM3, GISS-E2-R, IPSL-CM5, and MRI-CGCM3. The 5-model mean (file naming convention "5MM") was also computed. Projections exist for three thirty-year climatologies: the 2020s (2010-2039), the 2050s (2040-2069), and the 2080s (2070-2099). The snow-day fraction data used can be found here: http://ckan.snap.uaf.edu/dataset/projected-decadal-averages-of-monthly-snow-day-fraction-771m-cmip5-ar5 http://ckan.snap.uaf.edu/dataset/historical-decadal-averages-of-monthly-snow-day-fraction-771m-cru-ts3-0-3-1 The precipitation data used can be found here: http://ckan.snap.uaf.edu/dataset/projected-monthly-and-derived-precipitation-products-771m-cmip5-ar5 http://ckan.snap.uaf.edu/dataset/historical-monthly-and-derived-precipitation-products-771m-cru-ts Note: In Littell et al. 2018, "SWE" is referred to as "SFE", and "SFEtoP" as "SFE:P"

  • This set of files includes downscaled projected estimates of monthly temperature (in degrees Celsius, no unit conversion necessary) from 2006-2300* at 15km x 15km spatial resolution. They include data for Alaska and Western Canada. Each set of files originates from one of five top ranked global circulation models from the CMIP5/AR5 models and RCPs, or is calculated as a 5 Model Average. *Some datasets from the five models used in modeling work by SNAP only have data going out to 2100. This metadata record serves to describe all of these models outputs for the full length of future time available. The downscaling process utilizes CRU CL v. 2.1 climatological datasets from 1961-1990 as the baseline for the Delta Downscaling method.

  • These annual fire history grids (0=no fire, 1=fire) were produced directly from the BLM Alaska Fire Service database and the Canadian National Fire Database. They are simply a 1x1km raster representation of their fire history polygon database that can be obtained from: http://fire.ak.blm.gov/predsvcs/maps.php http://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/datamart Note, fire history data is very unreliable before ~1950 in Alaska. Fires may have been recorded in a given year, but that does not mean all fires that occurred were successfully recorded. This data was assembled from every recorded fire that has been entered into Alaska and Canadian databases. This results in several years containing no fires at all.

  • This dataset contains climate "indicators" (also referred to as climate indices or metrics) computed over one historical period (1980-2009) using the NCAR Daymet dataset, and two future periods (2040-2069, 2070-2099) using two statistically downscaled global climate model projections, each run under two plausible greenhouse gas futures (RCP 4.5 and 8.5). The indicators within this dataset include: hd: “Hot day” threshold -- the highest observed daily maximum 2 m air temperature such that there are 5 other observations equal to or greater than this value. cd: “Cold day” threshold -- the lowest observed daily minimum 2 m air temperature such that there are 5 other observations equal to or less than this value. rx1day: Maximum 1-day precipitation su: "Summer Days" –- Annual number of days with maximum 2 m air temperature above 25 C dw: "Deep Winter days" –- Annual number of days with minimum 2 m air temperature below -30 C wsdi: Warm Spell Duration Index -- Annual count of occurrences of at least 5 consecutive days with daily mean 2 m air temperature above 90th percentile of historical values for the date cdsi: Cold Spell Duration Index -- Same as WDSI, but for daily mean 2 m air temperature below 10th percentile rx5day: Maximum 5-day precipitation r10mm: Number of days with precipitation > 10 mm cwd: Consecutive wet days –- number of the most consecutive days with precipitation > 1 mm cdd: Consecutive dry days –- number of the most consecutive days with precipitation < 1 mm

  • This dataset consists of spatial representations of vegetation types produced through summarization of ALFRESCO model outputs. These specific outputs are from the Integrated Ecosystem Model (IEM) project, AR5/CMIP5 climate inputs (IEM Generation 2). ALFRESCO outputs were summarized over three future eras (2010-2039, 2040-269, 2070-2099) and a historical era (1950-2008). Both the proportions of all possible vegetation types and the modal vegetation type (most common type over a given era) are available as sub-datasets. Each are summarized over two future emissions scenarios for five CMIP5 models.

  • This dataset includes 42,120 GeoTIFFs (spatial resolution: 12 km) that represent decadal (15 decades between 1950-2099) means of monthly summaries of the following variables (units, abbreviations and case match those used in the source daily resolution dataset). There are three distinct groups of variables: Meteorological, Water State, and Water Flux. Meteorological Variables - tmax (Maximum daily 2-m air temperature, °C) - tmin (Minimum daily 2-m air temperature, °C) - pcp (Daily precipitation, mm per day) Water State Variables - SWE (Snow water equivalent, mm) - IWE (Ice water equivalent, mm) - SM1 (Soil moisture layer 1: surface to 0.02 m depth, mm) - SM2 (Soil moisture layer 2: 0.02 m to 0.97 m depth, mm) - SM3 (Soil moisture layer 3: 0.97 m to 3.0 m depth, mm) Water Flux Variables - RUNOFF (Surface runoff, mm per day) - EVAP (Actual evapotranspiration, mm per day) - SNOW_MELT (Snow melt, mm per day) - GLACIER_MELT (Ice melt, mm per day) Monthly summary functions, or how the daily frequency source data are condensed into a single monthly value, are as follows: - Sum: pcp, SNOW_MELT, EVAP, GLACIER_MELT, RUNOFF - Mean: tmin, tmax, SM1, SM2, SM3 - Maximum: IWE, SWE The model-scenario combinations used to represent various plausible climate futures are: - ACCESS1-3, RCP 4.5 - ACCESS1-3, RCP 8.5 - CanESM2, RCP 4.5 - CanESM2, RCP 8.5 - CCSM4, RCP 4.5 - CCSM4, RCP 8.5 - CSIRO-Mk3-6-0, RCP 4.5 - CSIRO-Mk3-6-0, RCP 8.5 - GFDL-ESM2M, RCP 4.5 - GFDL-ESM2M, RCP 8.5 - HadGEM2-ES, RCP 4.5 - HadGEM2-ES, RCP 8.5 - inmcm4, RCP 4.5 - inmcm4, RCP 8.5 - MIROC5, RCP 4.5 - MIROC5, RCP 8.5 - MPI-ESM-MR, RCP 4.5 - MPI-ESM-MR, RCP 8.5 - MRI-CGCM3, RCP 4.5 - MRI-CGCM3, RCP 8.5 The .zip files that are available for download are organized by variable. One .zip file has all the models and scenarios and decades and months for that variable. Each GeoTIFF file has a naming convention like this: {climate variable}_{units}_{model}_{scenario}_{month abbreviation}_{summary function}_{decade start}-{decade end}_mean.tif Each GeoTIFF has a 12 km by 12 km pixel size, and is projected to EPSG:3338 (Alaska Albers).

  • This dataset consists of sea ice indicators for the Arctic based on daily sea ice concentrations derived from satellite passive microwave measurements. The four indicators available are day of break-up start, day of break-up end, day of freeze-up start, and day of freeze-up end. These “day of year” values indicate the ordinal day of the ice-year on which the event occurred. The ice-year is defined as September 1 through August of the following year. Locally defined indicators can serve as key links between pan-Arctic or global indicators such as sea-ice extent or volume and local uses of sea ice, with the potential to inform community-scale adaptation and response.