Where there's snow (Terra, 8-day, 5 km) — MOD10C2

In plain English

What it measures. Shows the maximum extent of snow-covered land seen over each eight-day window worldwide, on a roughly 5 km grid, along with areas that stayed cloud-covered.

How it's made. Summarized from finer-resolution MODIS snow-cover observations on the Terra satellite, rolled up into eight-day percentages on a global grid.

How & where you'd use it. Handy for monitoring seasonal snow cover, water supply from snowmelt, and long-term changes in snow patterns.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW COVER

Coverage & cadence

Time span2000-02-18 → 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 (L3) data set provides the maximum percentage of snow-covered land and persistent cloud-covered land observed over eight-days, within 0.05° (approx. 5 km) MODIS climate modeling grid (CMG) cells. Percentages are computed from snow cover observations in the 'MODIS/Terra Snow Cover 8-Day L3 Global 500m SIN Grid' data set (DOI:10.5067/MODIS/MOD10A2.061). The terms "Version 61" and "Collection 6.1" are used interchangeably in reference to this release of MODIS data.

Get the data

mod10c2_access.py

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MOD10C2",
    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 Snow Cover 8-Day L3 Global 0.05Deg CMG, Version 61 User Guide VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
MODIS Grids and Tile Locators VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
MODIS Snow Products Collection 6.1 User Guide VIEW RELATED INFORMATION