The dataset provides daily snow thickness distribution data in China from October 24, 1978 to December 31, 2012, with a spatial resolution of 25km. The original data used to retrieve the snow depth data set are from SMMR (1978-1987), SSM / I (1987-2008) and AMSR-E (2002-2012) daily passive microwave brightness data processed by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Because the three sensors are installed on different platforms, there is a certain system inconsistency in the data obtained. By simultaneous interpreting the brightness temperature of different sensors, the consistency of brightness temperature data is increased. Then we use Dr. chetao's modified algorithm based on Chang algorithm to retrieve snow depth in China. Refer to "data description document" for specific inversion methods.
The dataset contains two projections, EASE-Grid and latitude/longitude, in two different folders: ease-grid_rar (data only up to 2010) and lon-lat_rar. Data for both projections are packaged yearly, and the files are named as follows: sensor name abbreviation + year, e.g. in the ease-grid_rar directory SR1985 indicates the snow depth in 1985 as inverted with SMMR bright temperature data; SI1990 indicates the snow depth in 1990 as inverted with SSM/I bright temperature data; AE2005 indicates the snow depth in 2005 as inverted with AMSR-E bright temperature data, all of which are projected as EASE-Grid. lon-lat_rar directory, above the dataset names are interpreted the same, except that their projection is a latitude/longitude projection. Please refer to the data documentation for a detailed description of the data.
The original data used to invert this snow depth dataset were derived from SMMR (1978-1987), SSM/I (1987-2008) and AMSR-E (2002-2012) daily passive microwave bright temperature data processed by the US National Snow Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
Since the three sensors are mounted on different platforms, there is some systematic inconsistency in the data obtained. The temporal consistency of the bright temperature data was improved by cross-calibrating the bright temperatures from the different sensors. The snow depth inversion is then carried out using Dr. Che Tao's Chang algorithm, which is modified for the area of China. For details of the inversion method, please refer to the 'Data description document'.
The dataset is controlled for quality through strict manual review
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CSTR:11738.11.ncdc.Westdc.2020.641
10.12072/ncdc.westdc.db3782.2023