Where there is snow on the ground each day, from NASA's MODIS sensor on Terra (500 m detail)

In plain English

What it measures. Where snow covers the ground each day worldwide, plus how reflective that snow is (albedo), mapped at 500-meter detail.

How it's made. Derived from the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite, combining each day's swath observations into a daily global snow map projected onto a fine grid.

How & where you'd use it. Used for tracking seasonal snowpack, forecasting spring meltwater and runoff, water-supply planning, and studying climate change in snowy regions.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › ALBEDOCRYOSPHERE › 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 (L3) data set provides a daily composite of snow cover and albedo derived from the 'MODIS/Terra Snow Cover 5-Min L2 Swath 500m' data set (DOI:10.5067/MODIS/MOD10_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

mod10a1_access.py

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MOD10A1",
    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