MODIS/Terra Snow Cover 5-Min L2 Swath 500m (MOD10_L2) contains snow cover and quality assurance (QA) data, latitudes, and longitudes in HDF-EOS format, along with corresponding metadata. Latitude and longitude geolocation fields are at 5 km resolution, while all other fields are at 500 m resolution. MODIS snow cover data are based on a snow mapping algorithm that employs a Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) and other criteria tests. The only data available for Version 3 (V003) is the Golden Month, which is a sample of V003 data covering the time period 29 August 2002 (day of year 241) through 7 October 2002 (day of year 280). The Golden Month is only available by special request by contacting NSIDC User Services.