Snow Data Assimilation System (SNODAS) Data Products at NSIDC, Version 1
Data set id:
G02158
DOI: 10.7265/N5TB14TC
This is the most recent version of these data.
Overview
Notice: Due to funding limitations, this data set was recently changed to a “Basic” Level of Service. Learn more about what this means for users and how you can share your story here: Level of Service Update for Data Products.
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.
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 PRECIPITATIONSNOW DEPTHSNOW MELT RUNOFF AT THE BASE OF THE SNOW PACKSNOW PACK AVERAGE TEMPERATURESNOW WATER EQUIVALENTSOLID PRECIPITATIONSUBLIMATION FROM THE SNOW PACKSUBLIMATION OF BLOWING SNOW
Platform(s):
Not Specified
Sensor(s):
Not Specified
Data Format(s):
Binary
Temporal Coverage:
30 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
Blue outlined yellow areas on the map below indicate the spatial coverage for this data set.
Data Access & Tools
Documentation
Help Articles
General Questions & FAQs
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.
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 Articles
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.
NOAA@NSIDC data recently transitioned to HTTPS. The directory structure has NOT changed, but the beginning of the URL has changed from:
ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/pub/DATASETS/
to:
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.