ADEOS-II/AMSR L2 Snow Water Equivalent dataset is obtained from the AMSR sensor onboard ADEOS-II and produced by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).The Advanced Earth Observing Satellite-II (ADEOS-II) was launched on December 14, 2002 (Japanese Standard Time). The objective of ADEOS-II was to acquire data to contribute to international global climate change research, as well as for applications such as meteorology and fishery. ADEOS-II operation on orbit was given up on October 31 2003, because sufficient electric power was not available to maintain operation of the satellite.AMSR observes various physical contents concerning to water (H2O) by receiving weak microwaves naturally radiated from the Earth's surface and atmosphere and also regardless of day or night, the presence of clouds. Those sensors aim at collecting global data for mainly understanding the circulation of water and energy. Level 2 product stores the Geophysical quantity from the brightness temperature of level 1 product. This product includes Snow Water Equivalent (SWE). Compared with non-snow surfaces, therefore, a snowpack has a distinctive electromagnetic signature at frequencies above 25 GHz. When viewed using passive microwave radiometers from above the snowpack, the scattering of upwelling radiation depresses the brightness temperature of the snow at increasingly high frequencies. This scattering behavior of snow can be exploited to detect the presence of snow on the ground. Having detected the snow, it is then possible to estimate the snow depth of the pack using the degree of scattering. The physical quantity unit is cm.The provided format is HDF4. Spatial resolution is 10 km. The current version of the product is "Version 7". The generation unit is scene (defined as a half orbit).