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High Altitude Weather Station Data at USGS Benchmark Glaciers

Since the late 1950s, the USGS has maintained a long-term glacier mass-balance program at three North American glaciers. Measurements began on South Cascade Glacier, WA in 1958, expanding to Gulkana and Wolverine glaciers, AK in 1966, and later Sperry Glacier, MT in 2005. Additional measurements have been made on Lemon Creek Glacier, AK to compliment data collected by the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP; Pelto and others, 2013). Direct field measurements are combined with weather data and imagery analyses to estimate the seasonal and annual mass balance at each glacier in both a conventional and reference surface format (Cogley and others, 2011). High-altitude measurements of meteorological data have been collected since the beginning of the USGS Benchmark Glacier Program adjacent to glaciers in order to support related science. This portion of the data collection includes select weather data that has received basic quality control and assurance. Data is released at three different levels of processing, level 0, 1 and 2. Level 0 data contains compiled raw data, before QC procedures are applied, at the original timestep recorded by the instrument. Level 1 data has received a plausible value check, and minimal manual error identification (e.g. errors noted on field visits). Level 2 data has been through more extensive quality control procedures and is provided at both the original instrument timestep as well as aggregated hourly and daily values. However, beyond the procedures detailed in this document, no additional steps have been taken to manually assure quality of the data. Data outside the main record of temperature and precipitation at each site should be considered preliminary, and be utilized with increased scrutiny.

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Author(s) U.S. Geological Survey, Emily H Baker orcid, Erich H Peitzsch orcid, Louis Sass orcid, Zachary S Miller orcid, Erin N Whorton orcid
Publication Date 2019-07-16
Beginning Date of Data 1966
Ending Date of Data 2024
Data Contact
DOI https://doi.org/10.5066/P9EUXIPE
Citation Survey, U.G., Baker, E.H., Peitzsch, E.H., Sass, L., Miller, Z.S., and Whorton, E.N., 2019, High Altitude Weather Station Data at USGS Benchmark Glaciers: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9EUXIPE.
Metadata Contact
Metadata Date 2025-07-31
Related Publication
Citations of these data No citations of these data are known at this time.
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License http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
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Harvest Source: ScienceBase
Harvest Date: 2025-08-20T05:10:07.086Z