Americas vs Antarctica: Permanent snow and glaciers — Area from MODIS

Americas
220,003 1000 ha
in 2024
Antarctica
1.18 million 1000 ha
in 2024
Americas rank
2nd
Antarctica rank
1st

Permanent snow and glaciers — Area from MODIS over time

  • Americas
  • Antarctica
250.0k500.0k750.0k1.0M1.2M200120122024

How they compare

Antarctica currently reports 1.18 million 1000 ha against 220,003 1000 ha in Americas, a difference of 957,567 1000 ha.

That makes Antarctica's figure about 5.4 times Americas's.

Across all 24 years both countries report, Antarctica has been ahead every year.

Americas ranks 2nd and Antarctica ranks 1st of 26 groups.

Antarctica has averaged higher in every one of the 3 decades both report.

Head to head by decade

Decade Americas Antarctica Difference Ahead
2000s 221,975 1000 ha 1.18 million 1000 ha 955,481 1000 ha Antarctica
2010s 220,928 1000 ha 1.18 million 1000 ha 956,600 1000 ha Antarctica
2020s 210,776 1000 ha 1.18 million 1000 ha 966,802 1000 ha Antarctica

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher permanent snow and glaciers — area from modis, Americas or Antarctica?
Antarctica, at 1.18 million 1000 ha against 220,003 1000 ha in Americas as of 2024.
What is the difference in permanent snow and glaciers — area from modis between Americas and Antarctica?
957,567 1000 ha, with Antarctica ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for Americas and Antarctica?
24 years are reported by both, from 2001 to 2024.
How do Americas and Antarctica rank globally for permanent snow and glaciers — area from modis?
Americas ranks 2nd and Antarctica ranks 1st of 26 groups.
Where does this data come from?
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, published as Permanent snow and glaciers — Area from MODIS. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

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Americas vs Antarctica: Permanent snow and glaciers — Area from MODIS. Statizoid, drawing on Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 21 August 2026, from https://environment.statizoid.com/compare/permanent-snow-and-glaciers-area-from-modis/americas/antarctica/

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About this data

Indicator
Permanent snow and glaciers — Area from MODIS
Unit
1000 ha
Source
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Licence
CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO)
Coverage
269 places, 6,390 data points, 2001–2024
Last refreshed

The FAOSTAT domain on Land Cover data under the Agri-Environmental Indicators section contains land cover information organized by the land cover classes of the international standard system for Environmental and Economic Accounting Central Framework (SEEA CF). The land cover information is compiled from publicly available Global Land Cover (GLC) maps: a) MODIS land cover types based on the Land Cover Classification System, LCCS; b) The European Spatial Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) annual land cover maps produced by the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL)-Geomatics and now under the European Copernicus Program; c) The annual land cover maps which were produced under the European Copernicus Global Land Service (CGLS) (CGLS land cover, containing discrete land cover categorization), with spatial resolution 100m; and d) the WorldCover maps of the European Space Agency, produced at 10m resolution.