Global Map

Daily updated snow depth map at 375 meters resolution

DeFROST operates and serves a daily snow depth map with 375 meters resolution for the entire world, excluding extreme latitudes (i.e. the arctic and antarctic circles).

Global Map showing the snow depth and extent in west USA on 20th December 2019

Polar latitudes are mapped, but are subject to very low resolution and update frequency to seasonal perpetual darkness conditions in winter. Therefore, we currently do not recommend using the global map for latitudes above or below the 66.5° parallels south or north.

Global snow map from 27th November 2019 - red lines indicate latitude coverage boundaries

Map Characteristics

The table below summarizes this map's key characteristics:

Map Characteristics
Spatial resolution	375 meters
Update time	Daily at 4PM CET
Tile zoom levels	9 zoom levels
Tile size	256x256 pixels
Default coloring	From light blue (#35e9e6) to bright pink (#ff01fb) The coloring spreads from 1cm to 2.5m+
Covered area	66.5°N to 66.5°S

To illustrate varying snow depths in the global map, the following coloring schema is applied:

Global Map coloring schema based on snow depth in centimeters

Map Endpoint

To display the DeFROST Global snow depth map as a layer over the basemap of your choice, use the URL string below as the Tile Server endpoint:

https://maps.defrost.io/global/v1/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

Pay attention to the fact that as any DeFROST endpoint, JWT Authentication is required for the Tile Server. This means a valid JWT token has to be set in the HTTP Authorization request header. Read more about Maps Authentication in the Maps Overview section.