{"accessLevel": "public", "bureauCode": ["010:12"], "contactPoint": {"@type": "vcard:Contact", "fn": "Susan E. Dickerson-Lange", "hasEmail": "mailto:dickers@uw.edu"}, "description": "OSU_SnowCourse Summary: Manual snow course observations were collected over WY\n2012-2014 from four paired forest-open sites chosen to span a broad elevation range.\nStudy sites were located in the upper McKenzie (McK) River watershed, approximately\n100 km east of Corvallis, Oregon, on the western slope of the Cascade Range and in\nthe Middle Fork Willamette (MFW) watershed, located to the south of the McKenzie.\nThe sites were designated based on elevation, with a range of 1110-1480 m.\nDistributed snow depth and snow water equivalent (SWE) observations were collected\nvia monthly manual snow courses from 1 November through 1 April and bi-weekly\nthereafter. Snow courses spanned 500 m of forested terrain and 500 m of adjacent\nopen terrain. Snow depth observations were collected approximately every 10 m and\nSWE was measured every 100 m along the snow courses with a federal snow sampler.\nThese data are raw observations and have not been quality controlled in any way.\nDistance along the transect was estimated in the field. OSU_SnowDepth Summary:\n10-minute snow depth observations collected at OSU met stations in the upper\nMcKenzie River Watershed and the Middle Fork Willamette Watershed during Water Years\n2012-2014. Each meterological tower was deployed to represent either a forested or\nan open area at a particular site, and generally the locations were paired, with a\nmeterological station deployed in the forest and in the open area at a single site.\nThese data were collected in conjunction with manual snow course observations, and\nthe meterological stations were located in the approximate center of each forest or\nopen snow course transect. These data have undergone basic quality control. See\nmanufacturer specifications for individual instruments to determine sensor accuracy.\nThis file was compiled from individual raw data files (named \"RawData.txt\" within\neach site and year directory) provided by OSU, along with metadata of site\nattributes. We converted the Excel-based timestamp (seconds since origin) to a date,\nchanged the NaN flags for missing data to NA, and added site attributes such as site\nname and cover. We replaced positive values with NA, since snow depth values in raw\ndata are negative (i.e., flipped, with some correction to use the height of the\nsensor as zero). Thus, positive snow depth values in the raw data equal negative\nsnow depth values. Second, the sign of the data was switched to make them positive.\nThen, the smooth.m (MATLAB) function was used to roughly smooth the data, with a\nmoving window of 50 points. Third, outliers were removed. All values higher than the\nsmoothed values +10, were replaced with NA. In some cases, further single point\noutliers were removed. OSU_Met Summary: Raw, 10-minute meteorological observations\ncollected at OSU met stations in the upper McKenzie River Watershed and the Middle\nFork Willamette Watershed during Water Years 2012-2014. Each meterological tower was\ndeployed to represent either a forested or an open area at a particular site, and\ngenerally the locations were paired, with a meterological station deployed in the\nforest and in the open area at a single site. These data were collected in\nconjunction with manual snow course observations, and the meteorological stations\nwere located in the approximate center of each forest or open snow course transect.\nThese stations were deployed to collect numerous meteorological variables, of which\nsnow depth and wind speed are included here. These data are raw datalogger output\nand have not been quality controlled in any way. See manufacturer specifications for\nindividual instruments to determine sensor accuracy. This file was compiled from\nindividual raw data files (named \"RawData.txt\" within each site and year directory)\nprovided by OSU, along with metadata of site attributes. We converted the\nExcel-based timestamp (seconds since origin) to a date, changed the NaN and 7999\nflags for missing data to NA, and added site attributes such as site name and cover.\nOSU_Location Summary: Location Metadata for manual snow course observations and\nmeteorological sensors. These data are compiled from GPS data for which the\nhorizontal accuracy is unknown, and from processed hemispherical photographs. They\nhave not been quality controlled in any way.", "distribution": [{"@type": "dcat:Distribution", "accessURL": "http://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F70C4SW3", "description": "Landing page for access to the data", "format": "XML", "mediaType": "application/http", "title": "Digital Data"}, {"@type": "dcat:Distribution", "description": "The metadata original format", "downloadURL": "https://data.usgs.gov/datacatalog/metadata/USGS.56e9baf0e4b0f59b85d81a0a.xml", "format": "XML", "mediaType": "text/xml", "title": "Original Metadata"}], "identifier": "http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_56e9baf0e4b0f59b85d81a0a", "keyword": ["Cascade Mountains", "Middle Fork Willamette watershed", "Oregon", "USGS:56e9baf0e4b0f59b85d81a0a", "forest canopy density", "meteorological observations", "snow depth", "snow observations", "time-lapse photography", "upper McKenzie River watershed"], "modified": "2026-09-02T00:00:00Z", "publisher": {"@type": "org:Organization", "name": "U.S. Geological Survey"}, "spatial": "-122.984939608723, 43.2011716812725, -121.271072421223, 44.7389299430737", "theme": ["geospatial"], "title": "Manual snow course observations, raw met data, raw snow depth observations, locations, and associated metadata for Oregon sites"}