Release of 2nd snow_cci Snow Cover Fraction Climate Research Data Package


The 2nd snow_cci Climate Research Data Packages (CRDP) including Snow Cover Fraction (SCF) time series from MODIS and AVHRR sensors and Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) time series from SMMR, SSM/I and SSMI/S instruments have been released in March 2022.

Daily SCF products are available with 0.01 deg (about 1 km) pixel spacing from MODIS data for the period 2000 - 2020, and with 0.05 deg (about 5 km) pixel spacing from AVHRR data for the period 1982 - 2018. In forested areas, the SCF CRDPs provide two different thematic information: snow viewable on top of the forest canopy (SCFV), and snow on the ground (SCFG), i.e. a canopy correction was applied. In non-forested areas, the SCFV and the SCFG products are equal.

Daily SWE products are available with 0.10 deg (about 10 km) pixel spacing for the winter periods 1979 - 2020. SWE products provide the snow mass information for the Northern Hemispheric land areas, but the geographic extent of the products is global.

The snow_cci products are available via the CCI Data Portal (http://cci.esa.int/data).

Further details on the dataset and direct access to the dataset are provided at the CEDA Archive:

Release of 1st snow_cci Snow Cover Fraction Climate Research Data Package


The 1st snow_cci Snow Cover Fraction (SCF) Climate Research Data Packages (CRDP) from MODIS and AVHRR sensors have been released in May 2021. Daily products are available with about 1 km pixel spacing from MODIS data for the period 2000 - 2019, and with about 5 km pixel spacing from AVHRR data for the period 1982 - 2019. The snow_cci products are available via the CCI Data Portal (http://cci.esa.int/data).

In forested areas, the SCF CRDPs provide two different thematic information: snow viewable on top of the forest canopy (SCFV), and snow on the ground (SCFG), i.e. a canopy correction was applied. In non-forested areas, the SCFV and the SCFG products are equal.

Further details on the dataset and direct access to the dataset are provided at the CEDA Archive:

The SWE CRDP v1.0 (1979 - 2018) was released in April 2020, and is also available via the CEDA Archive.

2nd snow_cci User Workshop


The 2nd snow_cci User Workshop was organized as Virtual Meeting on 25.05.2021, , fostering the communication between the snow_cci team, the the Climate Research Group associated with snow_cci, and users of snow_cci products working in various application fields related to climate monitoring and modelling.

Nature Publication on Snow Water Equivalent


In a new paper, published in Nature, researchers from the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and the Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), partners in the snow_cci project, have reliably estimated the amount of annual snow mass and changes in snow cover on the Northern Hemisphere between 1980 and 2018.

Pulliainen, J., Luojus, K., Derksen, C., Mudryk, L., Lemmetyinen, J., Salminen, M., Ikonen, J., Takala, M., Cohen, J., Smolander, T., and Norberg, J.: Patterns and trends of Northern Hemisphere snow mass from 1980 to 2018. Nature, 581, 294-298, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2258-0.

ESA web story: ESA Applications


Release of 1st snow_cci Snow Water Equivalent Climate Research Data Package


The 1st snow_cci Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) Climate Research Data Package (CRDP) has been released in April 2020. Daily products are available for the period 1979 - 2018.

The products are available via the CCI Data Portal (cci.esa.int/data). Further details on the dataset and direct access to the dataset are provided at the CEDA Archive (https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/fa20aaa2060e40cabf5fedce7a9716d0).


1st snow_cci User Requirements Workshop


The 1st snow_cci User Requirements Workshop was held on Thursday, 29 November 2018, at the Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG) in Vienna, Austria. 27 participants from 23 institutions from 11 countries attended the workshop, 8 of them via web-conference.

snow_cci will generate a 40-years time series of daily global snow cover extent and coarse resolution snow water equivalent from satellite data.


Seasonal snow

  • covers up to ~ 47 Mio. km² in extent and has a mass of ~ 3000 Gt
  • ~ 98% of seasonal snow cover occurs in the Northern Hemisphere
  • is highly variable in space and time
  • is very sensitive to weather on short term and to climate change on long term
The snow_cci products will be provided to the public. Link to the Climate Research Data Package is coming soon.

Left: Global snow cover extent composite from Sentinel-3 SLSTR data of 18-22 March 2017 (generated by ENVEO, 2017).
Right: Northern hemispheric snow water equivalent from passive microwave data on 19 November 2016 (generated by FMI, 2017).

Primary Science Questions

  • How is the changing snow-albedo feedback affecting the climate?
  • How much water is stored as seasonal snow and where has it changed?
  • How is the amount and duration of snow cover influencing the carbon cycle by insulating soil and influencing vegetation phenology?

The snow_cci project was successfully kicked of off on 26./27. September 2018 in Innsbruck, Austria.

Project timeline


snow_cci is a new essential climate variable of the ESA CCI+ programme.

Project Period (Phase 1): September 2018 - January 2022


Project Period (Phase 2): February 2022 - January 2025


ESA Contract No. 4000124098/18/I-NB.