NASA MODIS/Aqua Project: Daily Global Snow Cover and Sea Ice Data

A collection of global satellite-derived data products from the MODIS/Aqua instrument. The data includes daily cloud-free snow cover, sea ice extent, and ice surface temperature, processed to Level-2 and Level-3. The data is provided in a 500m sinusoidal grid and 1km EASE-Grid projections under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Monitoring daily snow cover dynamics based on cloud-free composite data.
• Analyzing sea ice extent and trends in polar regions based on daily hemispheric maps.
• Studying ice surface temperature variations from daytime and nighttime observations.
• Validating climate and hydrological models using global, satellite-derived snow and ice parameters.

Strengths

• Provides daily, global coverage for key cryospheric variables.
• Cloud-filling algorithm for snow cover data improves temporal continuity.
• Data is available in standardized geospatial projections (500m SIN Grid, 1km EASE-Grid).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and total dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

NASA MODIS/Aqua satellite.

Collection Method

Derived from Level-1B radiances using algorithms for snow cover (NDSI) and sea ice detection.

Time Range

Daily coverage, but specific date range is unknown.

Freshness

Daily update frequency is suggested by the product descriptions, but last update date is unknown.

Geography

Global coverage, with specific polar projections for sea ice data.