Water, snow, and ice are necessary for sustaining life on Earth and help connect the planet's systems. The terrestrial hydrosphere includes water on the land surface and underground in the form of lakes, rivers, and groundwater along with total water storage. NASA tracks nearly every aspect of the water cycle — where precipitation is falling, where snow and ice are melting, the amount of water soaking into the soil, how water moves in rivers and lakes, how it's taken up by plants and used by animals, and the amount of water evaporating back into the atmosphere. 

Data collected by NASA’s Earth-observing instruments provide information on the terrestrial hydrosphere including watershed extent, water quality, changes in surface and groundwater, and water surface elevation. In addition, NASA hydrospheric model data provide information on runoff and evapotranspiration. 

Our data provide information about many aspects of snow and ice development and processes, ground and surface water quality and chemistry, and the inflow and outflow of water from a region through rainfall, evaporation, runoff, seepage, and other means.