European Space Agency (ESA) Global Snow Water Equivalent Monitoring, 1979-2013

The efforts of the European Space Agency (ESA) Data User Element (DUE) funded GlobSnow project has resulted in two new hemispherical records of snow parameters intended for climate research purposes. The dataset contains satellite-retrieved information on snow water equivalent (SWE) extending 34 years. The record on snow water equivalent is produced using a combination of passive microwave radiometer and ground-based weather station data, spanning years 1979 to 2013. The GlobSnow SWE record, based on methodology by Pulliainen (Pulliainen 2006, Takala et al. 2011) utilizes a data-assimilation based approach combining space-borne passive radiometer data (SMMR, SSM/I and SSMIS) with data from ground-based synoptic weather stations. The satellite sensors utilized provide data at K- and Ka-bands (19 GigaHertz and 37 GigaHertz respectively) at a spatial resolution of approximately 25 kilometers (km). The SWE record is produced on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. SWE information is provided for terrestrial non-mountainous regions of Northern Hemisphere, excluding glaciers and Greenland.