GLASS SCE: Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover Extent, 1981–2019

A 39-year, gap-free snow cover extent dataset for the Northern Hemisphere at 0.05° spatial resolution. The GLASS SCE product provides binary snow cover maps every 8 days from September 1981 to December 2019, generated from AVHRR-SR satellite data by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Validation using 562 ground stations and MODIS data showed correlation coefficients of 0.61 and 0.97, confirming its credibility for monitoring snow cover frequency.

Use Cases

• Monitor long-term snow cover frequency trends based on the 39-year temporal coverage.
• Study climate change indicators based on the unique surface property of snow cover extent.
• Validate other snow cover products based on the dataset's cross-comparison with MOD10C2 and surface albedo.
• Analyze seasonal and inter-annual snow variability across the Northern Hemisphere based on the 8-day temporal resolution.

Strengths

• 39 years of temporally consistent data from 1981 to 2019.
• High spatial resolution of 0.05° (approximately 5.5 km at the equator).
• Validated against 562 Global Historical Climatology Network stations and MODIS data with reported correlations of 0.61 and 0.97.
• Gap-free coverage over the entire Northern Hemisphere terrestrial area.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data freshness is unverified as the last update date is unknown.
• The dataset is limited to binary snow/no-snow classification, which may not capture snow depth or water equivalent.

Provenance

Source

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Collection Method

Generated from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer Surface Reflectance (AVHRR-SR) Climate Data Record and ancillary datasets using a decision tree algorithm and aggregation process.

Time Range

September 1981 to December 2019

Freshness

Covers period up to December 2019; update frequency unknown.

Geography

Northern Hemisphere (0° to 90° N, 180° W to 180° E)