Reconstructed North American, Eurasian, and Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover Extent, 1915-1997

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Entry ID

G02131

Summary

This data set contains time series of monthly snow cover extent (SCE) for North America, Eurasia, and the Northern Hemisphere from 1915 to 1997, based on snow cover reconstruction and NOAA satellite data. The reconstruction method used in situ snow depth and daily climate data from the U.S.A., Canada, China, and the former Soviet Union to generate a monthly snow cover index, which was found to be closely related to satellite-derived estimates of SCE in certain months. Brown (2000) describes the method, which is considered to be more robust than SCE reconstruction based on statistical methods (see Brown, 1997; Frei et al., 1999).

In addition, the data set contains time series of annual variation in areally-averaged monthly snow depth and (SWE) for the North American grid domain used to derive the snow cover index. These provide additional insights into secular changes in snow cover over North America since SCE and depth variations are not always positively correlated.

Data are available via FTP.

Data Set Citation

Dataset Creator: Ross D. Brown
Dataset Title: Reconstructed North American, Eurasian, and Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover Extent, 1915-1997
Dataset Release Date: 2002-01-01
Dataset Release Place: Boulder, CO
Dataset Publisher: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
Online Resource: http://nsidc.org/data/G02131.html

Temporal Coverage

Start Date: 1915-01-01
Stop Date: 1997-12-31

Location Keywords

• Continent North America
• Geographic Region Eurasia
• Geographic Region Northern Hemisphere

Science Keywords

• Cryosphere Snow/Ice Snow Cover Snow Extent
• Terrestrial Hydrosphere Snow/Ice Snow Cover Snow Extent

Ancillary Keywords

• areally-weighted mean snow depth
• HDCD
• Historical Daily Climate Dataset
• linear regression analysis
• mean snow depth
• North American mid-latitudes
• reconstructed
• SCE
• Snow
• Snow Cover
• snow cover extent
• Snow Depth
• Snow Extent
• Snow Water Equivalent
• SWE

ISO Topic Category (View Definitions)

• Climatology/Meteorology/Atmosphere

Platform

• GROUND STATIONS
• SATELLITES

Instrument

• AVHRR Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
• VHRR Very High Resolution Radiometer

Data Set Progress

COMPLETE

Data Center

National Snow and Ice Data Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org
Data Set ID: G02131

Data Center Personnel

Name: NSIDC User Services
Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199
Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

NSIDC National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org/noaa/
Data Set ID: G02131

Data Center Personnel

Name: NSIDC NOAA User Services
Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199
Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

Distribution

Distribution Media: FTP
Distribution Size: 18 KB
Distribution Format: ASCII text file

Personnel

NSIDC USER SERVICES
Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT
Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199
Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

Ross D. Brown
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Phone: 514-421-4772
Fax: 514-421-4768
Email: ross.brown@ec.gc.ca
Contact Address:
Meteorological Service of Canada
2121 Trans Canada Highway
Dorval, QC H9P 1J3
Canada

Related URL

http://nsidc.org/data/G02131.html
This site provides access to data and documentation.

Reference

Brown, R.D. 2000. Northern Hemisphere snow cover variability and change, 1915-1997. J. Climate 13: 2339-2355.

Brown, R.D. 1997. Historical variability in Northern Hemisphere spring snow covered area. Annals of Glaciology 25: 340-346.

Brown, R.D. and R.O. Braaten, 1998. Spatial and temporal variability of Canadian monthly snow depths, 1946-1995. Atmosphere-Ocean 36: 37-45. Easterling, D.R., P. Jamason, D. Bowman, P.Y. Hughes and E. H. Mason. 1997. Daily snowdepth measurements from 195 stations in the United States. ORNL/CDIAC-95, NDP-059.

Frei, A., M.G. Hughes and D.A. Robinson. 1999. North American snow extent: 1910-1994. Int'l. J. Climatology 19: 1517-1534.

Metadata Name and Version

Metadata Name: CEOS IDN DIF
Metadata Version: 9.7

Creation and Review Dates

DIF Creation Date: 2002-10-10

DIF Text-Only

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