Name: MODIS/Terra Snow Cover 8-Day L3 Global 500m SIN Grid, Version 4
Creator: National Snow and Ice Data Center
Keywords: SNOW COVER

MODIS/Terra Snow Cover 8-Day L3 Global 500m SIN Grid, Version 4

Data set id:

MOD10A2

DOI: 10.5067/UD2MTW1EULL9

Data Citation and Acknowledgment
As a condition of using these data, you must cite the use of this data set. Such a practice gives credit to data set producers and advances principles of transparency and reproducibility.

Hall, D. K., Salomonson, V. V. & Riggs, G. A. (2000). MODIS/Terra Snow Cover 8-Day L3 Global 500m SIN Grid. (MOD10A2, Version 4). [Data Set]. Boulder, Colorado USA. National Snow and Ice Data Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/UD2MTW1EULL9. [describe subset used if applicable]. Date Accessed 11-22-2025.

Copied

Other standard citation formats may be found on the DOI Citation Formatter website (paste 10.5067/UD2MTW1EULL9 into the top form field).

Describing subset: When applicable, include the information a reader would need to extract the same subset at the end of your citation. If multiple or complex steps were incolved, it may be more appropriate to include this information in the paper itself.

See our Citation Policies for more details about how to structure your data citation.

There is a more recent version of these data.

Overview

MODIS/Terra Snow Cover 8-Day L3 Global 500m Grid (MOD10A2) contains data fields for maximum snow cover extent over an 8-day compositing period and a chronology of snow occurrence observations in HDF-EOS format, along with corresponding metadata. MOD10A2 consists of 1200 km by 1200 km tiles of 500 m resolution data gridded in a sinusoidal map projection. MODIS/Terra V004 data extend from 24 February 2000 to present. MODIS snow cover data are based on a snow mapping algorithm that employs a Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) and other criteria tests. The only data available for Version 4 (V004) is the Golden Month, which is a sample of V004 data covering the time period 29 August 2002 (day of year 241) through 7 October 2002 (day of year 280). The Golden Month is only available by special request by contacting NSIDC User Services. Please note that NSIDC now has a complete series of Version 5 data, which is the highest version number now available and represents the best quality of data.

Parameter(s):

SNOW COVER

Platform(s):

Terra

Sensor(s):

MODIS

Data Format(s):

HDF-EOS2

Temporal Coverage:

24 February 2000 to 31 December 2006

Temporal Resolution:

8 day

Spatial Resolution:

500 m

500 m

Spatial Reference System(s):

Not Specified

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.

View Metadata Record

Data Access & Tools

This data set has been retired. There is a more recent version of these data.

Help Articles

General Questions & FAQs

Can I merge different MODIS collections?

For the snow cover and sea ice products, users can use MODIS Collections 6 and 6.1 together.

This article covers frequently asked questions about the NASA NSIDC DAAC's Earthdata cloud migration project and what it means to data users.

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.

Missing and delayed MODIS data

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.

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

The NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) is migrating its primary data access from its legacy, on-premises archive to the NASA Earthdata Cloud.

How to Articles

Filter and order from a data set web page using the Data Access Tool

Many NSIDC DAAC data sets can be accessed using 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.

NASA Earthdata Cloud Data Access Guide

The NASA Earthdata Cloud is the NASA cloud-based archive of Earth observations. It is hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Learn how to find and access NSIDC DAAC data directly in the cloud.

Programmatic Data Access Guide

All data from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) is directly accessible through our HTTPS file system using Wget or curl. This article provides basic command line instructions for accessing data using this method.

This article highlights the NSIDC DAAC data sets available with customization options and outlines a workflow for searching, ordering, and customizing data in NASA Earthdata Search. This approach is ideal for users who want to download data to their local machine.

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.