Spring-time fractional snow cover mapping in Northern Hemisphere with NPP Suomi/VIIRS within ESA DUE GlobSnow-2 project

Northern Hemisphere fractional snow cover (FSC) mapping based on NPP Suomi/VIIRS data is introduced. In ESA DUE-project GlobSnow, VIIRS-based snow mapping relies on SCAmod method particularly designed to provide accurate FSC estimates also in boreal forests. Three 8-day composites from year 2013 are compared with MOD10C2 products in order to catch their possible differences in the hemispheric scale. The results indicate that in general, GlobSnow VIIRS-based snow maps are characterized by the transitional (fractional snow) zone wider than that provided by MOD10C2 products. Moreover, fractional snow cover estimates for forested areas are generally higher for GlobSnow VIIRS-based products than for MOD10C2, suggesting that SCAmod method is very capable of detecting fractional snow in forests.