Northern Hemisphere Snow and Ice Climate Data Records

This NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) project was designed to:

• Assess compliance of current Northern Hemisphere (NH) terrestrial, snow cover on sea ice and Greenland ice sheet snow data records with National Research Council Climate Data Record (CDR; equivalent to NASA Earth System Data Record (ESDR)) characteristics.
• Blend NH snow data products into ESDRs.
• Provide state-of-the-art NH snow ESDRs in multiple formats and on multiple time steps for the research community, decision-makers, and stakeholders.

To accomplish project objectives, efforts underway or to be accomplished by the end of the grant include the following:

• Assess how many of the NRC CDR characteristics are met by the NH terrestrial snow cover, snow cover over sea ice and Greenland ice sheet snow melt data records.
• The data records will be blended using statistical measures to develop enhanced, ESDR-compliant records of NH snow conditions.
• The ESDRs and associated products will then be provided via an existing Web site (https://www.snowcover.org) for access by the community. The ESDRs will also be distributed to relevant national data centers.