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  • A landfast ice dataset along the Beaufort Sea continental shelf, spanning 1996-2023. Spatial resolution is 100 m. Each month of the ice season (October through July) is summarized over three 9-year periods (1996-2005, 2005-2014, 2014-2023) using the minimum, maximum, median, and mean distance of SLIE from the coastline. The minimum extent indicates the region that was always occupied by landfast ice during a particular calendar month. The median extent indicates where landfast occurred at least 50% of the time. The maximum extent represents regions that may only have been landfast ice on one occasion during the selected time period. The mean SLIE position for the each month and and time period is also included. The dataset is derived from three sources: seaward landfast ice images derived from synthetic aperture radar images from the RadarSAT and EnviSAT constellations (1996-2008), the Alaska Sea Ice Program (ASIP) ice charts (2008-2017, 2019-2022), and the G10013 SIGID-3 Arctic Ice Charts produced by the National Ice Center (NIC; 2017-2019, 2022-2023). Within each GeoTIFF file there are 8 different pixel values representing different characteristics: 0 - Ocean 1 - Maximum Landfast Ice Extent 2 - Median Landfast Ice Extent 3 - Minimum Landfast Ice Extent 4 - Mean Landfast Ice Edge 5 - Land 6 - Out of Domain 7 - Coast Vector Shadow The file naming convention is as follows: Beaufort_$month_$era_SLIE_MMM_summary.tif For example, the name Beaufort_05_2005-2014_SLIE_MMM_summary.tif indicates the file represents data for May 2005-2014. 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.

  • 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.

  • A dataset of landfast ice extent along the Alaska coast of the Chukchi Sea and adjacent waters in Russia, 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: chukchi_$YYYYMMDD_$source_slie.tif For example, the name chukchi_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 historical estimates of decadal means of annual day of freeze or thaw (ordinal day of the year), and length of growing season (numbers of days, 0-365) for each decade from 1910 - 2006 (CRU TS 3.0) or 2009 (CRU TS 3.1) at at 771 x 771 meter spatial resolution. Each file represents a decadal mean of an annual mean calculated from mean monthly data.

  • 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 wind speed and direction data are the underlying data displayed in the interactive webtool at http://snap.uaf.edu/tools/airport-winds. Original wind speed/direction observations were made by Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) and the Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) stations, and we accessed these data via the Iowa Environmental Mesonet (IEM). These observations were hourly in most cases, and we filtered data to routine measurements (nearest to clock hour) where measurements were more frequent than hourly to generate a true hourly dataset, save for periods of missing data. We used data from 166 weather stations located across Alaska, selected from a pool of 185 stations available in the IEM database for 1980-2019. For inclusion in the app and this dataset, a station must have a reasonably complete record, and must have begun measurements before June 6, 2010. We applied a spike-filtering algorithm to detect spurious spikes and dips, and a changepoint detection plus quantile mapping adjustment to statistically account for the possibility of sensors changing location, height, or surroundings such that the long term (month-scale) wind regimes were affected. **Methodology** --- All hourly ASOS/AWOS wind speed and direction data available via the Iowa Environmental Mesonet AK ASOS network were accessed and assessed for completeness (185 stations), and 166 of those stations were determined to be sufficiently complete for climatological analysis. Those data were cleaned to produce regular hourly data, and adjusted via a combination of changepoint analysis and quantile mapping to correct for potential changes in sensor location and height. **Attribute Description** --- ts: timestamp (YYYY-mm-dd HH:MM:SS) ws: wind speed (mph) wd: wind direction (degrees) Station identifiers used for locations is available at: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/weather/asos/?state=AK

  • This set of files includes downscaled projections of monthly means, and derived annual, seasonal, and decadal means of monthly mean temperatures (in degrees Celsius, no unit conversion necessary) from Jan 2006 - Dec 2100 at 771x771 meter spatial resolution. For seasonal means, the four seasons are referred to by the first letter of 3 months making up that season: * `JJA`: summer (June, July, August) * `SON`: fall (September, October, November) * `DJF`: winter (December, January, February) * `MAM`: spring (March, April, May) The downscaling process utilizes PRISM climatological datasets from 1971-2000. 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.

  • 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.

  • This dataset consists of single band GeoTIFFs containing total annual counts of wet days for each year from 1980-2100 for one downscaled reanalysis (ERA-Interim, 1980-2015) and two downscaled CMIP5 global climate models driven under the RCP 8.5 baseline emissions scenario (NCAR-CCSM4 and GFDL-CM3, 2006-2100), all derived from the same dynamical downscaling effort using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model (Version 3.5). A day is counted as a "wet day" if the total precipitation for that day is 1 mm or greater.

  • This dataset consists of 6000 GeoTIFFs produced by the Geophysical Institute Permafrost Lab (GIPL) Permafrost Model. Six distinct CMIP5 model-scenario combinations were used to force the GIPL model output. Each model-scenario combination includes annual (2021-2120) summaries of the following ten variables: - Mean Annual Ground Temperature (MAGT) at 0.5 m below the surface (°C) - MAGT at 1 m below the surface (°C) - MAGT at 2 m below the surface (°C) - MAGT at 3 m below the surface (°C) - MAGT at 4 m below the surface (°C) - MAGT at 5 m below the surface (°C) - Mean Annual Surface (i.e., 0.01 m depth) Temperature (°C) - Permafrost top (upper boundary of the permafrost, depth below the surface in m) - Permafrost base (lower boundary of the permafrost, depth below the surface in m) - Talik thickness (perennially unfrozen ground occurring in permafrost terrain, m) There are 1000 GeoTIFF files per model-scenario combination. The model-scenario combinations are: - GFDL-CM3, RCP 4.5 - GFDL-CM3, RCP 8.5 - NCAR-CCSM4, RCP 4.5 - NCAR-CCSM4, RCP 8.5 - A 5-Model (GFDL-CM3, NCAR-CCSM4, GISS-E2-R, IPSL-CM5A-LR, MRI-CGCM3) Average, RCP 8.5 - A 5-Model (GFDL-CM3, NCAR-CCSM4, GISS-E2-R, IPSL-CM5A-LR, MRI-CGCM3) Average, RCP 4.5 The file naming convention is `gipl_model_scenario_variable_year.tif` for example: `gipl_GFDL-CM3_rcp45_talikthickness_m_2090.tif` Each GeoTIFF uses the Alaska Albers (EPSG:3338) projection and has a spatial resolution of 1 km x 1 km. All rasters in this dataset have indentical extents, spatial references, and metadata objects. Once extracted, the entire dataset (all 6000 GeoTIFFs) requires 39 GB of disk space. Data are compressed into ten .zip files, one per variable. Each archive will contain all model-scenario combinations and all years for that variable. Each .zip file contains 600 GeoTIFFs. This research was funded by the Broad Agency Announcement Program and the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center and Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (ERDC-CRREL) under Contract No. W913E521C0010. The GIPL2-MPI/GCM simulations were supported in part by the high-performance computing and data storage resources operated by the Research Computing Systems Group at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute.