• On Wednesday, March 20, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (US Mountain Time), the following data collections may not be available due to planned system maintenance: ASO, AMSR Unified, AMSR-E, Aquarius, High Mountain Asia, IceBridge, ICESat/GLAS, ICESat-2, LVIS, MEaSUREs, MODIS, Nimbus, SMAP, SnowEx, SSM/I-SSMIS and VIIRS.

MODIS/Aqua Snow Cover 5-Min L2 Swath 500m, Version 61
Data set id:
MYD10_L2
DOI: 10.5067/MODIS/MYD10_L2.061
This is the most recent version of these data.
Version Summary
The low visible reflectance screen for snow cover using bands 2 and 4 was lowered from 0.10 to 0.07 and cloud mask algorithm flags are set for 'probably cloudy' and 'probably clear' sky conditions.

Overview

This global Level-2 (L2) data set provides daily snow cover detected using Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) and a series of screens designed to alleviate errors and flag uncertain snow cover detections. The NDSI is derived from radiance data acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board the Aqua satellite: DOI:10.5067/MODIS/MYD02HKM.061 and DOI:10.5067/MODIS/MYD021KM.061. Each data granule contains 5 minutes of swath data observed at a resolution of 500 m. The terms "Version 61" and "Collection 6.1" are used interchangeably in reference to this release of MODIS data.
Parameter(s):
SNOW COVER
Platform(s):
Aqua
Sensor(s):
MODIS
Data Format(s):
HDF-EOS2
Temporal Coverage:
4 July 2002 to present
Temporal Resolution:
  • 5 minute
Spatial Resolution:
  • 500 m
  • 500 m
Spatial Coverage:
N:
90
S:
-90
E:
180
W:
-180
Blue outlined yellow areas on the map below indicate the spatial coverage for this data set.

Data Access & Tools

A free NASA Earthdata Login account is required to access these data. Learn More

Help Articles

General Questions & FAQs

For the snow cover and sea ice products, users can use MODIS Collections 6 and 6.1 together.
Data products from VIIRS are created to be similar to MODIS data products to ensure the continuity needed for the development of snow and sea ice climate records beyond the life expectancy of MODIS. The temporal resolution and spatial extent are identical in MODIS and VIIRS.
The lag time between observations and availability of MODIS products is only a few days. Lag time may be extended due to satellite maneuvers and extra quality assurance required for the geolocation data after the maneuver.
This short article describes the customization services available for ICESat-2 data using Earthdata Search
The Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) snow cover is an index that is related to the presence of snow in a pixel and is a more accurate description of snow detection as compared to Fractional Snow Cover (FSC). Snow typically has very high visible (VIS) reflectance and very low reflectan

How to Articles

Many NSIDC DAAC data sets can be accessed using the NSIDC DAAC's Data Access Tool. This tool provides the ability to search and filter data with spatial and temporal constraints using a map-based interface.Users have the option to
To convert HDF5 files into binary format you will need to use the h5dump utility, which is part of the HDF5 distribution available from the HDF Group. How you install HDF5 depends on your operating system.
Data subscriptions are available for select NSIDC DAAC data collections. Once signed up, the subscription service automatically sends you new data as they are delivered from active NASA satellite missions.
All data from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) can be accessed directly from our HTTPS file system, using wget or curl. Basic command line instructions are provided in the article below. 
NASA Earthdata Search is a map-based interface where a user can search for Earth science data, filter results based on spatial and temporal constraints, and order data with customizations including re-formatting, re-projecting, and spatial and parameter subsetting.
NASA Worldview is a map interface that allows users to interactively browse imagery, create visualizations, and download the underlying data.
NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) provides up to date, full resolution imagery for selected NSIDC DAAC data sets.