MODIS/Terra Snow Cover Daily L3 Global 500m Grid, Version 5

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Entry ID

MOD10A1V5

Summary

The MODIS/Terra Snow Cover Daily L3 Global 500m Grid (MOD10A1) contains snow cover, snow albedo, fractional snow cover, and Quality Assessment (QA) data in compressed Hierarchical Data Format-Earth Observing System (HDF-EOS) format along with corresponding metadata. MOD10A1 consists of 1200 km by 1200 km tiles of 500 m resolution data gridded in a sinusoidal map projection. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow cover data are based on a snow mapping algorithm that employs a Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) and other criteria tests.

Data are stored in HDF-EOS format, and are available from 24 February 2000 to present via FTP. Data can also be obtained in GeoTIFF format by ordering the data through the Data Pool.

Data Set Citation

Dataset Creator: Hall, Dorothy K, George A. Riggs, Vincent V. Salomonson
Dataset Title: MODIS/Terra Snow Cover Daily L3 Global 500m Grid, Version 5
Dataset Release Date: 2006-12-18
Dataset Release Place: Boulder, CO U.S.A.
Dataset Publisher: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
Version: 5
Online Resource: http://nsidc.org/data/mod10a1v5.html

Temporal Coverage

Start Date: 2000-02-24

Location Keywords

• Geographic Region Global Land

Science Keywords

• Cryosphere Snow/Ice Albedo
• Cryosphere Snow/Ice Lake Ice
• Cryosphere Snow/Ice Snow Cover
• Terrestrial Hydrosphere Snow/Ice Albedo
• Terrestrial Hydrosphere Snow/Ice Lake Ice
• Terrestrial Hydrosphere Snow/Ice Snow Cover

Ancillary Keywords

• Antarctic
• Arctic
• Climatology
• DAAC
• ECS
• EOSDIS
• Global Change
• Gridded
• Integerized Sinusoidal Grid
• Lake Ice
• NASA
• NSIDC
• Polar
• Remote Sensing
• Sinusoidal Grid
• Snow
• Snow Cover
• Snow On Ice

ISO Topic Category (View Definitions)

• Climatology/Meteorology/Atmosphere

Platform

• TERRA Earth Observing System, TERRA (AM-1)

Instrument

• MODIS Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
• SPECTRORADIOMETERS

Project

• EOSDIS Earth Observing System Data Information System
• ESIP Earth Science Information Partners Program

Quality

Quality indicators for MODIS snow data can be found in the following three places:

* AutomaticQualityFlag and the ScienceQualityFlag metadata objects and their corresponding explanations: AutomaticQualityFlagExplanation and ScienceQualityFlagExplanation located in the CoreMetadata.0 global attributes * Custom local attributes associated with each SDS, for example, snow cover * Snow Spatial QA field.

These quality indicators are generated during production or in post-production scientific and quality checks of the data product. For more information on local and global attributes, go to one of the following links:

* MOD10A1 and MYD10A1 Local Snow Cover Attributes, Version 5 * MOD10A1 and MYD10A1 Global Snow Cover Attributes, Version 5

The AutomaticQualityFlag is automatically set according to conditions for meeting data criteria in the snow mapping algorithm. In most cases, the flag is set to either Passed or Suspect, and in rare instances, it may be set to Failed. Suspect means that a significant percentage of the data were anomalous and that further analysis should be done to determine the source of anomalies. The AutomaticQualityFlagExplanation contains a brief message explaining the reason for the setting of the AutomaticQualityFlag. The ScienceQualityFlag and the ScienceQualityFlagExplanation maybe updated after production, either after an automated QA program is run or after the data product is inspected by a qualified snow scientist. Content and explanation of this flag are dynamic so it should always be examined if present in the external metadata file.

The algorithm tests for a variety of anomalous conditions and sets the pixel value accordingly if such conditions are detected. Summary statistics about missing data, the percent cloud cover, the percent of good or other quality data, and snow cover percent are calculated and placed in the metadata for each product. The Snow Spatial QA data field provides additional information on algorithm results for each pixel within a spatial context, and is used as a measure of usefulness for snow-cover data. The QA information tells if algorithm results were nominal, abnormal, or if other defined conditions were encountered for a pixel (Riggs, Hall, and Salomonson 2006).

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: MODIS Land Quality Assessment Web site provides updated quality information for each product.

Data Center

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

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 Distributed Active Archive Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org/daac/index.html

Data Center Personnel

Name: NSIDC DAAC 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: 0.8 - 6.7 MB
Distribution Format: GeoTIFF

Distribution Media: FTP
Distribution Size: 0.8 - 6.7 MB
Distribution Format: HDF-EOS

Personnel

Dorothy K. Hall
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
Mail stop 614.1
City: Greenbelt
Province or State: MD
Postal Code: 20771

Vince V. Salomonson
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:
Room 809 WBB
Department of Meteorology
University of Utah
City: Salt Lake City
Province or State: UT
Postal Code: 84112
Country: US

George A. Riggs
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
Science Systems and Applications, Inc.
Mail stop 614.1
City: Greenbelt
Province or State: MD
Postal Code: 20771

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

Related URL

http://nsidc.org/daac/modis

Reference

Diner, D. J., J. V. Martonchik, C. Borel, S. A. W. Gerstl, H. R. Gordon, Y. Knyazikhin, R. Myneni, B. Pinty, and M. M. Verstraete. 1999. MISR Level-2 Surface Retrieval Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document. Pasadena, CA: Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). 1996. EOS Ground System (EGS) Systems and Operations Concept. Greenbelt, MD: Goddard Space Flight Center.

Greuell, W. and Oerlemans, J. (2005). Validation of AVHRR- and MODIS-Derived Albedos of Snow and Ice Surfaces by Means of Helicopter Measurements. Journal of Glaciology, 51(172):37-48.

Hall, Dorothy K., George A. Riggs, and Vincent V. Salomonson. September 2001a. Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD) for the MODIS Snow-, Lake Ice- and Sea Ice-Mapping Algorithms. Greenbelt, MD: Goddard Space Flight Center. .

Hall, Dorothy K. and J. Martinec. 1985. Remote Sensing of Ice and Snow. London: Chapman and Hall.

Hall, Dorothy K., J. L. Foster, D. L. Verbyla, A. G. Klein, and C. S. Benson. 1998. Assessment of Snow Cover Mapping Accuracy in a Variety of Vegetation Cover Densities in Central Alaska. Remote Sensing of the Environment 66:129-137. Hall, DorothyK., J. L. Foster, Vincent V. Salomonson, A. G. Klein, and J. Y. L. Chien. 2001b. Development of a Technique to Assess Snow-Cover Mapping Accuracy From Space. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 39(2):232-238. Hall, Dorothy K. and George A. Riggs. 2006. Assessment of Errors in the MODIS Suite of Snow-Cover Products. Hydrological Processes, in press.

Hapke, B. 1993. Theory of Reflectance and Emittance Spectroscopy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Justice, C. O. 2002. An Overview of MODIS Land Data Processing and Product Status. Remote Sensing of the Environment, 83(1):3-15. Klein, A. MODIS Snow Albedo Prototype. 2003. Accessed October 2006.

Klein, A. G., and Julienne Stroeve. 2002. Development and Validation of a Snow Albedo Algorithm for the MODIS Instrument. Annals of Glaciology 34:45-52.

Klein, A. G., Dorothy K. Hall, and George A. Riggs. 1998. Improving Snow-Cover Mapping in Forests Through the Use of a Canopy Reflectance Model. Hydrologic Processes 12(10-11):1723-1744.

Markham, B. L. and J. L. Barker. 1986. Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) and Thematic Mapper (TM) Post-Calibration Dynamic Ranges, Exoatmospheric Reflectances and At-Satellite Temperatures. EOSAT Technical Notes 1:3-8.

MODIS Characterization and Support Team (MCST). 2000. MODIS Level-1B Product User's Guide for Level-1B Version 2.3.x Release 2. MCST Document #MCM-PUG-01-U-DNCN.

MODIS Science and Instrument Team. MODIS Web. July 2003. Accessed October 2000.


Painter, Thomas H. and Dozier, J. 2004. Measurements of the Hemispherical Directional Reflectance of Snow at Fine Spectral and Angular Resolution. Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 109(D18):D18115. doi:10.1029/2003JD004458. Pearson II, F. 1990. Map Projections: Theory and Applications. Boca Raton, FL. CRC Press, Inc.


Riggs, George A., Dorothy K. Hall, and Vincent V. Salomonson. December 2006. MODIS Snow Products User Guide to Collection 5. PDF http://nsidc.org/data/docs/daac/modis_v5/dorothy_snow_doc.pdf. 3 MB.

Riggs, George A., Dorothy K. Hall, and Vincent V. Salomonson. Updated October 2006. MODIS Snow Products User Guide for Collection 4 Data Products. .

Stroeve, Julienne, A. Nolin, and K. Steffen. 1997. Comparison of AVHRR-Derived and In Situ Surface Albedo Over the Greenland Ice Sheet. Remote Sensing of the Environment, 62:262-276.

Stroeve, Julienne A., J. E. Box, Terry Haran. 2006. Evaluation of the MODIS (MOD10A1) Daily Snow Albedo Product Over the Greenland Ice Sheet. Remote Sensing of the Environment, 105:155-171.

United States Geological Survey. 'Sinusoidal Equal Area.' Map Projections. 2003.

Metadata Name and Version

Metadata Name: CEOS IDN DIF
Metadata Version: 9.7

Creation and Review Dates

DIF Creation Date: 2008-03-19

DIF Text-Only

Directory Interchange Format (DIF) in plain text

DIF XML

Directory Interchange Format (DIF) in Extensible Markup Language (XML)

FGDC HTML

U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM)