The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-E/Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 (AMSR-E/AMSR2) “Snow Water Equivalent” (SWE) layer displays 5-day maximum SWE estimates in millimeters (mm) for the Northern Hemisphere rendered to an azimuthal 25 km Equal-Area Scalable Earth Grid (EASE-Grid). SWE indicates the quantity of water that is contained in snowpack and is fundamental for water resources management, weather forecasting, flash flood prediction and the study of water and energy cycles.

The AMSR2 instrument is a conically scanning passive microwave radiometer. This instrument senses microwave radiation for twelve channels and six frequencies ranging from 6.9 GHz to 89 GHz on board the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Global Change Observation Mission – Water 1 (GCOM-W1) satellite.

This product uses the JAXA AMSR2 Level-1R input TBs which are calibrated (unified) across the JAXA AMSR-E and AMSR2 Level-1R products. Source data for this layer provides Southern Hemisphere data that utilizes a different, older algorithm and browse imagery is not currently available.

References: DOI: 10.5067/0PX911G6417E