NASA VIIRS-JPSS Project: Daily Global Snow Cover at 375m Resolution

Global daily snow cover maps derived from the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the JPSS-2 satellite. The data is processed using a cloud-gap-filled algorithm to estimate snow under cloud cover and is mapped to a 375-meter sinusoidal grid. This dataset is hosted on AWS Open Data and is provided under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Monitoring seasonal snow cover extent and duration based on daily global maps.
• Modeling hydrological runoff and water resource availability based on snow cover data.
• Studying climate change impacts on snow and ice based on time-series of satellite observations.
• Validating and improving snow detection algorithms based on the Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) methodology.

Strengths

• Data is processed with a cloud-gap-filled algorithm to reduce observational gaps.
• Spatial resolution is specified as 375 meters on a sinusoidal grid.
• Data collection is daily, providing high temporal frequency for time-series analysis.

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, from the VIIRS instrument on the JPSS-2 satellite.

Collection Method

Derived from radiance data using the Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) and quality control screens.

Time Range

Daily coverage; specific date range is unknown from the input.

Freshness

Daily

Geography

Global