Relevance

Snow cover and lake ice cover have been identified as 2 of the 50 essential climate variables (ECVs), by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), for the strong impact they exert on Earth’s climate. They influence water cycle and surface energy fluxes, representing key parameters in weather and hydrology.

New high-resolutions products

The new products use Sentinel-2 optical data and Sentinel-1 radar data to offer high-resolution information on snow cover and river and lake ice extent for 32 EEA member countries, the United Kingdom, and 6 cooperating countries in the Western Balkans.

The HR-S&I products developed, currently available on WEkEO from Copernicus Land Monitoring service, are:

• The snow cover extent with the snow cover fraction and its daily cumulative gap-filled version
• The snow state conditions of this snow cover (wet/dry snow) and the wet snow extent in mountain areas
• The persistent snow area over the hydrological year
• The ice cover extent on rivers and lakes (snow-covered or snow-free ice)
• The percent coverage of ice on lakes and on 10 km river sections.

Snow and Ice applications are time-critical. With the continuous improvement of ESA in Sentinel-2 L1C and Sentinel-1 GRD data release and the direct access of WEkEO to the source of the data, most of the operational HR-S&I products are available between 6 and 12 hours after the observation.