Earth  ID: 3185

Monthly Snow Climatology, 1979-2002 (WMS)

Visualizations by Eric Sokolowsky Released on July 1, 2005
The extent of snow and ice that covers the earth's surface in the northern hemisphere grows and shrinks with the seasons. This animations shows the average snow and ice cover for a given month over a 24-year period, 1979 - 2002. It shows how often a particular point is covered with snow in a given month. The SVS Image Server gives each particular image in the animation the last date for which the data was used in creating that image, even though each of the images covers a span of years for a particular month.
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This animation shows the average snow cover for a given month over a 23-year period. The frames provide a transparent overlay. A background image taken from NASA's Blue Marble is also provided.

This product is available through our Web Map Service.
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Color bar for the snow cover.

Visualization Credits

Eric Sokolowsky (GST): Lead Animator
Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Visualizer
Walt Meier (NSIDC): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3185

Data Used:
DMSP/SSM/I
1979-2002
Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Special Sensor Microwave Imager
view all stories where this data set is used
Nimbus-7/SMMR
1979-2002
view all stories where this data set is used
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
WMS

Keywords:
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Precipitation >> Snow
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Snow/Ice >> Snow Cover
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Hydrosphere >> Snow/Ice >> Snow Cover
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0