The BOREAS RSS-10 team investigated the magnitude of daily, seasonal, and yearly variations of PAR from ground and satellite observations. This data set contains satellite estimates of surface-incident photosynthetically active radiation (PAR, 400-700 nm, MJ m-2) at 1 degree spatial resolution. The spatial coverage is circumpolar from latitudes of 41 to 66 degrees N latitude. The temporal coverage is from May through September for years 1979 through 1989. Eleven-year statistics are also provided: mean, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation for 1979-1989. The PAR estimates were derived from the global gridded ultraviolet reflectivity data product (average of 360, 380 nm) from the Nimbus-7 Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS). Image mask data are provided for identifying the boreal forest zone, and ocean/land and snow/ice covered areas. The data are available as binary image format data files. Companion files include example thumbnail images that may be viewed and the image data files downloaded using a convenient viewer utility.

Average spectral reflectance measurements of the ground surface of BOREAS flux tower sites. Measurements made along a transect with the instrument held at approximately one meter above the ground.

The BOREAS RSS-07 team collected various data sets to develop and validate an algorithm to allow the retrieval of the spatial distribution of LAI from remotely sensed images. Ground measurements of LAI and FPAR absorbed by the plant canopy were made using the LAI-2000 and TRAC optical instruments during focused periods from 09-AUG-1993 to 19-SEP-1994. The measurements were intensive at the NSA and SSA tower sites, but were made just once or twice at auxiliary sites.

The TIMS imagery, along with the other remotely sensed images, was collected to provide spatially extensive information over the primary study areas. This information includes detailed land cover, biophysical parameter maps such as fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (fPAR), leaf area index (LAI), and surface thermal properties.

The BOREAS TE-12 team collected PAR data sets in support of its efforts to characterize and interpret information on shoot geometry, leaf optical properties, leaf water potential, and leaf gas exchange. The data were collected at the SSA-OBS site from 04-Jul-1996 to 25-Jul-1996.

The BOREAS RSS-11 team operated a network of five automated (Cimel) and two hand-held (Miami) solar radiometers from 1994 to 1996 during the BOREAS field campaigns. The data provide aerosol optical depth measurements, size distribution, phase function, and column water vapor amounts over points in northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada. The data are useful for the correction of remotely sensed aircraft and satellite images. The data are provided in tabular ASCII files.

The BOREAS RSS-17 team acquired and analyzed imaging radar data from the ESA's ERS-1 over a complete annual cycle at the BOREAS sites in Canada in 1994 to detect shifts in radar backscatter related to varying environmental conditions. This data set consists of dielectric constant profile measurements from selected trees at various BOREAS flux tower sites. The relative dielectric constant was measured at C-band (frequency = 5 GHz) as a function of depth into the trunk of three trees at each site. Measurements were made during April 1994 with an Applied Microwave Corporation field PDP fitted with a 0.358-cm (0.141-inch) diameter coaxial probe tip.

MAS images, along with the other remotely sensed data, were collected to provide spatially extensive information over the primary study areas. This information includes detailed land cover and biophysical parameter maps such as fPAR (fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation) and LAI (Leaf Area Index).

Existing BOREAS gridded data sets were processed into projections and scales required by the Follow-on modeling teams. Existing TM and AVHRR based landcover maps, AVHRR-FPAR maps, AVHRR-LAI maps, moss cover maps, and a new peatland distribution map were regridded to scales of 2 km, 10 by 5 minute, and half-degree grids for use by the BOREAS Follow-On Carbon and Hydro-Meteorological modeling groups.

Contains the RSS-01 PARABOLA data sets averaged by 15 degree common view zenith and azimuth angles collected during the BOREAS field campaigns in 1994.