Global Snow Monitoring for Climate Research

The aim of the ESA DUE GlobSnow project (active from 2008 to 2014) was the production of global long term records of snow parameters intended for climate research purposes on hemispherical scale.
- Information on two essential snow parameters have been made available: snow water equivalent (SWE) and fractional snow extent (SE), provided for a period of 35+ years and 15+ years respectively.
- A demonstrator Near Real Time snow mapping service (for both SWE and SE) has been in operation since October 2010.
- The final report of GlobSnow-2 project describes a summary of the project, introduces the products in more detail and presents the key findings and the main accomplishments achieved during the GlobSnow project.

Global areal snow extent -product (SE): The areal snow extent product is based on satellite-based optical data. it includes daily, weekly and monthly snow extent maps produced for Northern Hemisphere, excluding glaciers, Greenland and snow on ice (lakes/seas/oceans). Main features for SE: The long term SE data set was produced for the years 1995 - 2016. The snow cover maps are produced as daily, weekly and monthly composites. ESA ERS-2 ATSR-2, Envisat AATSR and Suomi NPP VIIRS were the main employed data sources. The SE maps were generated using WGS84 projection and a 0.01 degree (approx. 1km) spatial resolution. Demonstration of an operational near-real time SE mapping service has been online since October 2010.

Snow water equivalent -product (SWE): The snow water equivalent product is based on the combination of satellite-based microwave radiometer and ground-based weather station data. Main features for SWE: The long term SWE data set spans the years 1979 - 2016 The snow cover maps are produced as daily, weekly and monthly composites. Nimbus-7 SMMR, DMSP SSM/I and DMSP SSMIS are the main data sources, SMMR for 1979-1987 and SSM/I and SSMIS since 1987. The SWE information is produced for non-mountainous areas of Northern Hemisphere, also glaciers, Greenland and snow on ice (lakes/seas/oceans) are excluded. The SWE maps are generated using EASE-Grid projection and a 25km spatial resolution. Demonstration of an operational near-real time SWE mapping service has been online since October 2010. The long term datasets and the service are openly available via the GlobSnow website, hosted on NSDC.