Snow Data Assimilation System (SNODAS) Data Products at NSIDC, Version 1 (G02158)
Data set:
G02158
This is the most recent version of these data.
Overview
This data set contains snow pack properties, such as depth and snow water equivalent (SWE), from the NOAA National Weather Service's National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center (NOHRSC) SNOw Data Assimilation System (SNODAS). SNODAS is a modeling and data assimilation system developed by NOHRSC to provide the best possible estimates of snow cover and associated parameters to support hydrologic modeling and analysis.
Parameter(s):
LIQUID PRECIPITATION
SNOW DEPTH
SNOW MELT RUNOFF AT THE BASE OF THE SNOW PACK
SNOW PACK AVERAGE TEMPERATURE
SNOW WATER EQUIVALENT
SOLID PRECIPITATION
SUBLIMATION FROM THE SNOW PACK
SUBLIMATION OF BLOWING SNOW
Platform(s):
Not Specified
Sensor(s):
Not Specified
Data Format(s):
Binary
Temporal Coverage:
28 September 2003 to present
Temporal Resolution:
1 day
Spatial Resolution:
1 km
1 km
Spatial Coverage:
N:
52.8754
S:
24.9504
E:
-66.9421
W:
-124.7337
N:
53.9667
S:
24.0996
E:
-62.2504
W:
-130.5171
Yellow areas on the map below indicate the spatial coverage for this data set.
Data Access & Tools
Documentation
Help Articles
FAQ
SNODAS is a model output, so it is not recommended for use for quantitative water budget analysis. However, it is reasonable to sum values over a given area for a period of time, if, for example, you wanted to compare annual totals of snow water equivalent (SWE) for a given area.
Getting started
NOHRSC provides/creates the data, we just archive it. If you have questions about the model (such as how it is run) that are not available in the user guide, you have to contact NOHRSC directly.
NSIDC has scripts that run several times a day. If new SNODAS files are found, these scripts will automatically post them to our FTP server.
This is most likely due to a problem with Windows Winzip which corrupts the file upon downloading (you will see that the file size will have changed from the original located on ftp)
You can correct this by changing some settings in WinZip:
How To
This article describes the use of Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) tools for converting SNODAS binary files to NetCDF or GeoTIFF.
The following steps will work for all eight SNODAS variables in ArcGIS 10.0 or higher.
The NSIDC Python Reformatting and Subsetting (PyRS) tool is a command line tool which prompts the user to specify data reformatting and subsetting preferences. Output formats available are native, GeoTIFF, and NetCDF.