Where snow is on the ground (Aqua, daily, 500 m) — MYD10A1

In plain English

What it measures. Daily maps of where snow is on the ground worldwide at 500-meter detail, along with surface albedo (how much sunlight the snow and surface reflect).

How it's made. Compiled from snow observations by the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite, combined into a daily global picture on a 500-meter grid.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for monitoring daily snow cover, managing snowmelt-fed water supplies, and studying snow and climate; pairs naturally with the Terra version for fuller daily coverage.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › ALBEDOCRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW COVER

Coverage & cadence

Time span2002-07-04 → ongoing
Measured byAqua (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 a daily composite of snow cover and albedo derived from the 'MODIS/Aqua Snow Cover 5-Min L2 Swath 500m' data set (DOI:10.5067/MODIS/MYD10_L2.061). Each data granule is a 10°x10° tile projected to a 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

myd10a1_access.py

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MYD10A1",
    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.

What's measured

Coverage & cadence

What you can do with it

Get the data

Official links