USGS EROS Archive - Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 Fractional Snow Covered Area (fSCA) Science Product

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The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) offers Landsat Collection 2 (C2)Level-3 Fractional Snow Covered Area (fSCA) science products for Landsat 8-9 Operational Land Imager (OLI), Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), and Landsat 4-5 Thematic Mapper (TM).  

Landsat C2 fSCA science products are generated from Landsat Collection 2 U.S. Analysis Ready Data (ARD) Surface Reflectance and Top of Atmosphere Reflectance 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.

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

• Landsat 8-9 OLI: April 2013 to present
• Landsat 7 ETM+: July 1999 to present
• Landsat 5 TM: March 1984 to May 2012
• Landsat 4 TM: November 1982 to October 1992

Landsat 9 C2 fSCA will become available later in 2022.

The maps below display the C2 ARD tile-based coverage of Landsat C2 fSCA products. The processing of C2 fSCA data has been expanded to include the northern areas of CONUS, and the Aleutian Islands near Alaska.

Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details

Most Landsat Collection 2 Level-1 scenes can be processed to generate a fSCA product. In addition to the caveats listed on the Landsat C2 ARD and C2 Surface Reflectance web pages.

• The fSCA algorithm tends to flag water boundaries and dark water pixels as false positives. The fSCA QA is designed to use the Landsat C2 Level 3 DSWE science product to alleviate many of these false-positives.
• The fSCA algorithm uses National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 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 a particular area due to fire, logging, urbanization, etc., the canopy-adjusted results may have issues with accuracy.
• The fill value for the viewable snow (VIEWABLE_SNOW) and shade fractions (SCAG_SHADE) fall in the valid data range. Users are advised to use the fill bit in FSCA_QA band to mask NoData pixels.

Collection 2 Fractional Snow Covered Area Product Improvements

• fSCA science product expanded to include northern areas of the U.S.
• fSCA science product expanded to include the Aleutian Islands. Note: The H/V tile grid numbers of the Alaska C2 ARD and ARD-derived products has changed from C1.  
• The C1 SNOW band has been expanded in C2 to separate VIEWABLE and GROUND SNOW bands to show whether the SCAG results are adjusted for the canopy cover.
• New Shade fractions (SCAG_SHADE) and SCAG Model Mask (SCAG_MASK) bands have been added.

Additional Information

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

Access Data

Landsat Fractional Snow Covered Area 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 4-9 C2 Fractional Snow Covered Area. Visit the Landsat Data Access webpage for information about downloading C2 fSCA products.    

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 Fractional Snow Covered Area (fSCA) Science Product Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number: 10.5066/P97ALZ2X

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) Science Product courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.