USGS EROS Archive - Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 fSCA Statistics Science Product Active

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The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) offers Landsat Collection 2 (C2) Level-3 Fractional Snow Covered Area (fSCA) Statistics science products. 

fSCA  Statistics mean snow cover fraction and clear pixel count statistics for unique time steps between 1984 and the current year. These time steps include 5-year date ranges and the entire ARD stack period. Each fSCA statistic package contains monthly (entire ARD stack only), annual, and mean annual viewable or ground snow cover statistics files for each unique time step, over a single tile location (e.g., 2001-2005 statistics for tile h002v005).

Collection 2 Fractional Snow Covered Area (fSCA) Statistics Package Contents

The entire stack time period will have 24 monthly, 2 annual, and 1 mean annual file, all described in a single XML metadata file for the that time period. Each unique 5-year time period will have two annual files, listed in a single XML metadata file for that time period. The statistics files are described below.

• Monthly fractions – “MFRACTIONS” : The mean snow cover of all acquisitions within month “x” for each year in the n-year time step.
  
  Delivered file name: tileID_MFRACTIONS
• Monthly cloud free count – “MCLDFREE”: The number of clear pixels used for the monthly snow cover fractions.
  
  Delivered file name: tileID_MCLDFREE
• Annual fractions – “AFRACTIONS”: The mean snow cover fractions of all acquisitions in the n-year span.
  
  Delivered file name: tileID_AFRACTIONS
• Annual cloud free count – “ACLDFREE”: The number of clear pixels used for the annual snow cover fractions.
  
  Delivered file name: tileID_ACLDFREE
• Mean annual fractions – “MEAN_AFRACTIONS”: The mean of all monthly snow cover fractions over the n-year span.
  
  Delivered file name: tileID_MEAN_AFRACTIONS

Additional Information

• Landsat Missions Collection 2 Fractional Snow Covered Area Statistics Webpage
• Landsat Collection 2 Fractional Snow Covered Area (fSCA) Data Format Control Book
• Landsat Fractional Snow Covered Area Algorithm Description Document 

Data Access

Landsat Fractional Snow Covered Area Statistics products are available for download in full tile bundles or individual files from EarthExplorer. The data are located under the Landsat category, Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 Science Products subcategory, and listed as Landsat 4-8 C2 fSCA Statistics.

Visit the Landsat Data Access webpage for information about downloading C2 fSCA Statistics  products.   

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Landsat Collection 2 Fractional Snow Covered Area Statistics Digital Object Identifier (DOI): /10.5066/F7VQ31ZQ

Citation Information

There are no restrictions on the use of Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 Science Products. It is not a requirement of data use, but the following citations may be used in publication or presentation materials to acknowledge the USGS as a data source and to credit the original research.

Landsat Collection 2 Level 3 Fractional Snow Covered Area (fSCA) Statistics Science Product courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.