Northern Hemisphere snow cover, weekly (100 km) — NSIDC-0531

In plain English

What it measures. Weekly maps of where snow covers the ground across the Northern Hemisphere, at 100-km resolution, given as three versions including a merged best estimate.

How it's made. Combines two existing snow records: a NOAA snow-cover record and snow detected by passive-microwave sensors on DMSP and Nimbus-7 satellites, into a single dataset.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for studying seasonal and long-term changes in snow cover, which matters for water supply and climate.

What's measured

TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW COVERCRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW COVER

Coverage & cadence

Time span1966-10-04 → 2012-12-31
Measured byDMSP 5D-2/F11 (SSM/I) · DMSP 5D-2/F13 (SSM/I) · DMSP 5D-2/F8 (SSM/I) · DMSP 5D-3/F17 (SSMIS) · Nimbus-7 (SMMR)
Processing levelLevel 3
Spatial extent-180, 0, 180, 90
FormatsnetCDF-4
StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

Follow rainfall, floods and surface-water extent
Track soil moisture and the onset of drought
Monitor lakes, rivers and groundwater storage

Official description

This data set, part of the NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) program, offers users weekly 100 km Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent represented by three different variables. Two of the variables are derived from individual source products: the NOAA/NCDC Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover Extent Climate Data Record and Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) passive microwave brightness temperatures, respectively. The third variable merges the other two into a single representation of snow cover.

Get the data

nsidc-0531_access.py

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="NSIDC-0531",
    version="1",
    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