Snow Cover (1 month - Terra/MODIS)

Snow Cover (1 month - Terra/MODIS) | NASA

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About this dataset

When air temperature falls below freezing (0°Celsius), the water droplets in clouds harden into ice crystals. Such crystals may grow into large, lacey snowflakes; or they may stick together to form odd-shaped clusters of ice crystals. When they grow heavy enough, the ice crystals fall to the ground as snow. If the ground temperature is also below freezing, the snow can build up into a bright white blanket covering the surface. Snow cover is an important part of Earth's environment. Because it reflects most of the sunlight that hits it, snow helps to cool Earth's surface. Many areas of the world rely on snowmelt for drinking water and water for their crops. So scientists monitor where and how much of Earth's landscape is covered by snow.

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February 2024

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1.0 degrees 360 x 180 download
0.5 degrees 720 x 360 download
0.25 degrees 1440 x 720 download
0.1 degrees 3600 x 1800 download
CSV for Excel older than 2007 download

What do the colors mean?

In these maps, the white areas show lands that were completely snow-covered on the dates shown. The light blue shades show regions in which there was only partial snow cover.

Get Data

MODIS/Terra Snow Cover L3 Global 0.05Deg CMG

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1. Visit NSIDC Scientific Data Search

2. Select 1 of the 3 datasets with the time interval you need

3. Make sure you create/ sign in to your Earthdata account

4. Download data

Related Websites

MODIS

Terra

MODIS Snow/Ice Global Mapping Project

Earthdata MODIS

National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)

Further Reading

Snow Cover

MODIS Image Shows Below Average Snow Cover in North America

Winter Snow Cover in the Northern Hemisphere

A Snowy Drought

Heavy Snow in Colorado and Nebraska

Thin Snow Cover in the Sierra Nevada

ATBD (Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document)

MODIS Snow and Sea Ice-Mapping Algorithms

Credits

Imagery produced by the NASA Earth Observations team using data courtesy of the National Snow & Ice Data Center.

Federal Geographic Data Committee Geospatial Metadata

View the FGDC Metatdata for Snow Cover (1 month - Terra/MODIS)

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