Chinese institutes generate high-resolution snow cover dataset

Chinese researchers have generated a 38-year high-resolution snow cover dataset spanning from 1981 to 2019.

Snow cover is closely connected with climate. On the one hand, owing to snow's unique high albedo, it can greatly affect surface radiation and thereby climate systems. On the other hand, changes in climate in turn affect global and regional snow cover, according to the research article published in the journal Earth System Science Data.

The snow cover dataset has a spatial resolution of 5 km and a daily temporal resolution. Analysis based on snow cover data on the ground and high-resolution remote sensing images showed that the overall accuracy of the dataset reached 86.1 percent, higher than that of currently existing advanced super high-resolution radiometer products.

The dataset, generated by researchers from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou Jiaotong University and Jilin Jianzhu University, has been available online through the National Cryosphere Desert Data Center and will provide support for analyzing the spatial-temporal distribution of snow cover and its impact on hydroclimatic ecology.