MODIS Snow Cover

Active

500m daily/8-day global snow-cover extent from MODIS — the standard optical snow product for basin-scale tracking.

by NASA / NSIDC

Pricing: Gov-Public
License: US Government (public domain)
Commercial use: Permitted
Ecosystem: Google Earth Engine, Python
Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux

About MODIS Snow Cover

MOD10A1/A2 (Terra) and MYD10A1/A2 (Aqua) map binary and fractional snow cover globally at 500m resolution, daily and as cloud-gap-filled 8-day composites, distributed through NSIDC since 2000. As an optical product it sees snow extent directly but not depth or water equivalent — pair it with SNODAS or a snow model where SWE is what the analysis actually needs.

For basin-scale snow-cover-area tracking, melt-timing analysis and validating snowmelt runoff models against observed extent, MODIS snow cover is the default reference product worldwide.

Where it fits in the workflow

TerrainCatchmentRainfallRunoffRoutingHydraulicsMappingReporting

Appears in collections

Satellite Data for Hydrology & Water Engineering
The satellite and reanalysis datasets H&H engineers actually reach for — DEM to GRACE.

Alternatives to MODIS Snow Cover

Ranked by the topics, categories and workflow stages they share with MODIS Snow Cover.

MODIS ET (MOD16)

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Global actual ET from MODIS, 500m, 8-day/monthly/annual — a Penman-Monteith water-balance term, ready-made.

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MODIS LST

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1km daily/8-day land surface temperature from MODIS — the standard thermal input for energy-balance ET and snowmelt.

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SMAP

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NASA's L-band radiometer soil moisture mission — 9km/36km near-surface moisture, daily, since 2015.

Data, Monitoring & ForecastingActiveSatellite Soil Moisture Data Drought Analysis

SNODAS

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NOAA's modelled snow depth and SWE for the CONUS — 1km daily grids from satellite, airborne and station data.

Data, Monitoring & ForecastingActiveSnow Hydrology Streamflow Forecasting

SSEBop

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USGS operational ET at Landsat resolution — 30m actual evapotranspiration for water-rights and irrigation accounting.

Data, Monitoring & ForecastingActiveEvapotranspiration Irrigation

Google Earth Engine

Freemium

Planetary-scale geospatial analysis in the cloud — the data catalogue and compute behind modern water remote sensing.

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