USGS EROS Archive - Landsat - Landsat Level-3 Fractional Snow Covered Area (fSCA) Science Product Active

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NOTE: Landsat Collection 1 data and products are no longer available to download from the USGS as of December 30, 2022. The information on this webpage is for reference only. 

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) offers Landsat Level- 3 Fractional Snow Covered Area (fSCA) data for Landsat 8-9 Operational Land Imager (OLI), Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), and Landsat 4-5 Thematic Mapper (TM).  Landsat fSCA contains an acquisition-based per-pixel snow cover fraction, an acquisition-based revised cloud mask for quality assessment, and a product metadata file.

Landsat fSCA science products are generated from U.S. Landsat Analysis Ready Data (ARD) Surface Reflectance (SR) data, processed to 30-meter spatial resolution in Albers Equal Area (AEA) projection using the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) datum, and gridded to a common tiling scheme. These data are processed to the highest scientific standards and can be used directly in monitoring and assessing landscape change.

The following date ranges apply to the availability of the Landsat fSCA science product:

• Landsat 8-9 OLI: April 2013 to December 31, 2021*
• Landsat 7 ETM+: July 1999 to December 31, 2021*
• Landsat 5 TM: March 1984 to May 2012
• Landsat 4 TM: March 1984 to July 1993

   *As of January 1, 2022, newly-acquired Landsat data are processed into Landsat Collection 2 only.

fSCA products are available for 144 ARD tile locations over the western conterminous United States (CONUS)and 115 ARD tile locations over Alaska (Figs 1 and 2). 

Most Landsat Collection 1 Level-1 scenes can be processed to generate the fSCA product. In addition to the caveats listed on the Landsat ARD and Surface Reflectance web pages, please note the following:

• The scale factor in the Extensible Markup Language (XML) file for the SNOW band is incorrectly defined. The scale factor should be 0.001 instead of the current 0.0001. The valid range for these fractions when unscaled should be between 0.0 and 1.0.

• The fSCA algorithm tends to classify water boundaries as snow in some regions.
• The fSCA algorithm uses the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2011 canopy cover and land cover products for canopy adjustment to address canopy covered areas of snow. If the NLCD canopy cover or land cover products are not accurate for an area due to fire, logging, urbanization, etc., the canopy-adjusted results may have issues with accuracy.

Additional Information

• Landsat Missions Web site
• Landsat Fractional Snow Covered Area (fSCA) Product Guide
• Landsat Fractional Snow Covered Area (fSCA) Algorithm Description Document

Access Data

Landsat Collection 1 no longer available.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Landsat Level-3 Fractional Snow Covered Area (fSCA) Science Product Digital Object Identification (DOI): /10.5066/F7XK8DS5