HR: 0830h
AN: B21E-0754    [PDF]
TI: Obtaining and Using the MODIS Snow and Ice Products for Land Surface Research
AU: * Kaminski, M
EM: marilynk@nsidc.org
AF: National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado UCB 449, Boulder, CO 80303 United States
AU: Khalsa, S S
EM: sjsk@nsidc.org
AF: L-3 Communications Corporation, 1801 McCormick Drive Suite 170, Landover, MD 20774 United States
AU: McLean, B
EM: btmclean@nsidc.org
AF: National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado UCB 449, Boulder, CO 80303 United States
AU: Scharfen, G R
EM: scharfen@nsidc.org
AF: National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado UCB 449, Boulder, CO 80303 United States
AU: Wolfe, J
EM: wolfe@nsidc.org
AF: National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado UCB 449, Boulder, CO 80303 United States
AU: Hall, D K
EM: dorothy.k.hall@nasa.gov
AF: Hydrological Sciences Branch, Code 974, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AB: Snow and sea ice cover are some of the more important spatial features of the Earth's surface that can be readily measured from space. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments onboard NASA's Terra and Aqua spacecraft collect spectral data that are used to routinely produce snow cover and sea ice products. With higher spatial and spectral resolution, the MODIS snow and ice products (including snow albedo and sea ice surface temperature) improve upon a long history of global coverage satellite-derived products that have been produced from polar-orbiting satellites since the early 1970s. Fully automated, quality controlled, daily global maps of snow cover and sea ice extent, produced at 500m, 1000m, and 0.05$\deg$ spatial resolutions by the MODIS Land Team, are available from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC). MODIS snow and ice products from the Terra satellite have been produced since 2000; most of these products have been validated over a wide range of locations and time periods. Production of comparable snow and ice products using Aqua data will begin during the next few months after final testing of an algorithm that uses a slightly different set of spectral bands. Recent work to improve the performance and utility of the products includes: subsetting, gridding, and resampling tools; an easy-access Data Pool of recent and popular data holdings; reduced-resolution browse data available through the ordering systems; and plans for new products including a snow albedo product as well as a sea ice product on a climate modeling grid. Through examples of current MODIS data usage, we describe the characteristics and state of validation of the MODIS snow and ice products, their accessibility from the NSIDC DAAC, and current user support and tools.
UR: http://nsidc.org/modis
DE: 1863 Snow and ice (1827)
DE: 1894 Instruments and techniques
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting