ORNL DAAC Data Release - ABoVE Aboveground Biomass & In-situ Flux and Environmental Data

[ORNL - blancohl]

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC) released new datasets for the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) program.

The Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) was a field campaign conducted in Alaska and western Canada for nearly ten years, starting in 2015. ABoVE researchers linked field-based process studies with geospatial data products derived from airborne and satellite sensors. The work provided a foundation for improving the analysis and modeling capabilities needed to understand and predict ecosystem responses to, and societal implications of, climate change in the Arctic and boreal regions.

ABoVE: Landsat-derived Annual Aboveground Biomass Density and Uncertainty, 1984-2022
This dataset provides annual aboveground biomass (AGB) maps and associated uncertainty maps for Alaska and Canada from 1984 to 2022 at ~30 m resolution. The dataset was derived using predictors from synthetic spectral features from Landsat Collection 2 and the Continuous Change Detection and Classification algorithm. Extensive collections of ground plots (n = 45,002) and airborne lidar data (n = 421,942) were compiled for reference AGB in order to calibrate AGB models per ecoregion. Fifty AGB predictions were derived, and the mean and standard deviation across models were used as per-pixel AGB prediction and uncertainty, respectively. The dataset can promote better understanding of carbon dynamics across arctic and boreal regions of North America. The data are provided in cloud optimized GeoTIFF format.

ABCFlux v2: Arctic-Boreal CO2 and CH4 In-situ Flux and Environmental Data
This dataset is a synthesis of terrestrial and freshwater CO2 and CH4 fluxes from the Arctic-Boreal region aggregated to monthly timesteps. The dataset, known as ABCFlux v2, includes 1,024 unique sites and spans 1984-2024 with the majority of observations occurring after 1999. ABCFlux v2 includes surface-atmosphere CO2 fluxes of net ecosystem exchange (NEE), gross primary production (GPP), and ecosystem respiration (Reco) alongside CH4 fluxes. For aquatic ecosystems, CH4 fluxes were split into diffusive and ebullitive flux pathways and included potential emissions from transient storage in the water column, as well as CO2 and CH4 concentrations dissolved in the surface water. Fluxes were measured through a variety of methods including chamber and eddy covariance techniques such as bubble traps, ice-surveys, and concentration-based turbulence-driven modeling in aquatic ecosystems. Supporting variables include methodological metadata (e.g., gap-filling methods, number of chamber measurement days), environmental measurements (e.g., air, water, and soil temperatures), and site-level attributes (e.g., permafrost thaw status, disturbance history). Compared with version 1, this version 2 dataset includes additional variables to represent detailed descriptions of plant functional types, deep soil temperatures (<10 cm), and permafrost thaw presence or absence in the top two meters. Data pertaining to CH4 fluxes were also added that were not included in previous version. The data are provided in two comma separated values (CSV) files that separate terrestrial and aquatic sites.
More information on these datasets and others like it can be found on the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) landing page..

Citations:
Liang, W., Hu, K. T., van Lier, O., Tompalski, P., Friedl, M. A., Randerson, J. T., Morton, D. C., Rogers, B. M., Burrell, A., Macander, M. J., Yang, D., Lu, J., Bullock, E., Zhang, Y., Zhu, X., & Wang, J. A. (2025). ABoVE: Landsat-derived Annual Aboveground Biomass Density and Uncertainty, 1984-2022 (Version 1). ORNL Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2465

Virkkala, A.-M., Wargowsky, I., Vogt, J., Kuhn, M., Madaan, S., O'Keefe, R., Windholz, T., Arndt, K. A., Rogers, B., Watts, J. D., Goeckede, M., Schuur, E. A. G., Rocher-Ros, G., Bastviken, D., Olefeldt, D., Kent, K., Aalstad, K., Aho, K., Ala-Konni, J., … Natali, S. (2025). ABCFlux v2: Arctic-Boreal CO2 and CH4 In-situ Flux and Environmental Data (Version 1). ORNL Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2448