Monthly Global Snow Depth Measurements From Satellite

AMSR2 sensor data provides monthly mean snow depth over land on a 0.25-degree global grid. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) produces this dataset from the GCOM-W satellite launched in 2012. It includes statistical metrics like standard deviation and data counts for each grid cell.

Use Cases

• Modeling seasonal snow water equivalent by analyzing the Month Mean Snow Depth (SND) column across mountainous regions.
• Assessing data reliability for climate studies by examining the Standard_Deviation and Average_Number columns per grid cell.
• Tracking interannual variability in snow cover distribution using the time series of SND values.
• Identifying regions with persistent snow cover or data gaps by analyzing the Total_Number column over the global land grid.

Strengths

• Global land coverage at a consistent 0.25-degree spatial resolution.
• Includes quality metrics like Standard_Deviation and data count columns (Average_Number, Total_Number).
• Data is separated for satellite ascending and descending tracks, providing two observational perspectives.

Limitations

• Excludes snow cover over sea ice surfaces, limiting polar region analysis.
• Temporal resolution is one month, missing finer-scale daily snow dynamics.
• Unknown total time range and update recency for the current Version 2 product.

Provenance

Source

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the AMSR2 sensor on the GCOM-W platform, with Level 3 processing calculating monthly statistical means from daily inputs.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Monthly statistical period; specific last update date is unknown.

Geography

Global land coverage.