Where there is snow (Aqua, monthly, 0.05 degree) — MYD10CM

In plain English

What it measures. Monthly averages of where snow covered the ground, mapped globally with each grid cell about 5 kilometers across.

How it's made. Compiled by averaging the daily MODIS/Aqua snow-cover observations over each month onto a global climate-modeling grid.

How & where you'd use it. Good for tracking seasonal and year-to-year changes in snow extent, useful in climate studies and water-resource planning.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › 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 monthly average snow cover within 0.05° (approx. 5 km) MODIS Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) cells. Monthly averages are computed from daily snow cover observations in the MODIS/Aqua Snow Cover Daily L3 Global 0.05Deg CMG (https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MYD10CM.061) data set. The terms "Version 61" and "Collection 6.1" are used interchangeably in reference to this release of MODIS data.

Get the data

myd10cm_access.py

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MYD10CM",
    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/Aqua Snow Cover Monthly 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