Where snow is, cloud-gap-filled (Terra, daily, 500 m)

In plain English

What it measures. Daily, cloud-free maps of where snow is on the ground worldwide at 500-meter detail, plus a count of how many days it has been since a clear view was last available for each spot.

How it's made. Built from MODIS/Terra daily snow maps by filling cloud-blocked pixels with the most recent clear-sky view, so the map has no gaps.

How & where you'd use it. Handy for tracking daily snow cover without cloud interruptions, supporting water supply forecasts, flood planning, and snow research.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW COVER

Coverage & cadence

Time span2000-02-24 → ongoing
Measured byTerra (MODIS)
Processing levelLevel 3
Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
FormatsHDF-EOS2
StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

Measure sea ice, snow cover and glaciers
Watch ice-sheet elevation change
Track freeze/thaw and permafrost

Official description

This global Level-3 data set (MOD10A1F) provides daily cloud-free snow cover derived from the MODIS/Terra Snow Cover Daily L3 Global 500m SIN Grid data set (MOD10A1). Grid cells in MOD10A1 which are obscured by cloud cover are filled by retaining clear-sky views of the surface from previous days. A separate parameter is provided which tracks the number of days in each cell since the last clear-sky observation. Each data granule contains a 10° x 10° tile projected to the 500 m sinusoidal grid. The terms "Version 61" and "Collection 6.1" are used interchangeably in reference to this release of MODIS data.

Get the data

mod10a1f_access.py

import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MOD10A1F",
    version="61",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from NSIDC_CPRD

Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.

Official links

Search and order NASA Earth Science data using spatial and temporal filters. Reformatting, reprojecting, and subsetting options are available for some data sets. GET DATA
Quickly download a few files using a web browser, or access data through a command-line utility such as WGET. GET DATA
Search data by spatial and/or temporal ranges or file name. Choose from various download options, including a Python script. GET DATA
A Python library to search and access NASA Earth science data with just a few lines of code GET DATA
Find more data access options and help resources. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
MODIS/Terra CGF Snow Cover Daily L3 Global 500m SIN Grid, Version 61 User Guide VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
MODIS Grids and Tile Locators VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
Continuity of MODIS and VIIRS Snow Cover Extent Data Products for Development of an Earth Science Data Record VIEW RELATED INFORMATION