MODIS/Terra Snow Cover 8-Day L3 Global 500m SIN Grid, Version 5
Data set id:
MOD10A2
DOI: 10.5067/C574UGKQQU1T
There is a more recent version of these data.
Overview
The MODIS/Terra Snow Cover 8-Day L3 Global 500m Grid (MOD10A2) data set contains data fields for maximum snow cover extent over an eight-day compositing period and a chronology of snow occurrence observations in compressed Hierarchical Data Format-Earth Observing System (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. 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.
Parameter(s):
SNOW COVER
Platform(s):
Terra
Sensor(s):
MODIS
Data Format(s):
HDF-EOS2
Temporal Coverage:
- 24 February 2000 to 2 January 2017
Temporal Resolution:
- 8 day
Spatial Resolution:
- 500 m
- 500 m
Spatial Reference System(s):
Not Specified
Spatial Coverage:
- N:90S:-90E:180W:-180
Blue outlined yellow areas on the map below indicate the spatial coverage for this data set.
Data Access & Tools
This data set has been retired. There is a more recent version of these data.
Documentation
Help Articles
General Questions & FAQs
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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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.