VIIRS/NPP Snow Cover Daily L3 Global 375m SIN Grid, Version 1
Data set id:
VNP10A1
DOI: 10.5067/VIIRS/VNP10A1.001
There is a more recent version of these data.
Overview
This data set contains daily snow cover derived from radiance data acquired by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on board the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite. The data is a gridded composite, generated from 6 minute swaths, and projected to a 375 m Sinusoidal grid. Snow cover is identified using the Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) and a series of screens designed to alleviate errors and flag uncertain snow cover detections.
As of April 2025, this data set is retired and no longer available for download. Data from the "Golden Month," a 40-day window from 29 August, 2018 to 7 October, 2018 are available by special request from NSIDC User Services.
We recommend using VIIRS/NPP Snow Cover Daily L3 Global 375m SIN Grid, Version 2 as an alternative.
Parameter(s):
SNOW COVER
Platform(s):
Suomi-NPP
Sensor(s):
VIIRS
Data Format(s):
HDF-EOS5
Temporal Coverage:
- 19 January 2012 to 17 June 2024
Temporal Resolution:
Not Specified
Spatial Resolution:
- 375 m
- 375 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
User Guide
ATBDs
General Resources
Product Specification Documents
Sensor and Instrument Information
Help Articles
General Questions & FAQs
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 VIIRS 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 VIIRS data using Earthdata Search.
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.
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.