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Monitoring and analysis of snow cover change in an alpine mountainous area in the Tianshan Mountains, China

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Abstract

Estimating the snow cover change in alpine mountainous areas (in which meteorological stations are typically lacking) is crucial for managing local water resources and constitutes the first step in evaluating the contribution of snowmelt to runoff and the water cycle. In this paper, taking the Jingou River Basin on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains, China as an example, we combined a new moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow cover extent product over China spanning from 2000 to 2020 with digital elevation model (DEM) data to study the change in snow cover and the hydrological response of runoff to snow cover change in the Jingou River Basin under the background of climate change through trend analysis, sensitivity analysis and other methods. The results indicate that from 2000 to 2020, the annual average temperature and annual precipitation in the study area increased and snow cover fraction (SCF) showed obvious signs of periodicity. Furthermore, there were significant regional differences in the spatial distribution of snow cover days (SCDs), which were numerous in the south of the basin and sparse in the central of the basin. Factors affecting the change in snow cover mainly included temperature, precipitation, elevation, slope and aspect. Compared to precipitation, temperature had a greater impact on SCF. The annual variation in SCF was limited above the elevation of 4200 m, but it fluctuated greatly below the elevation of 4200 m. These results can be used to establish prediction models of snowmelt and runoff for alpine mountainous areas with limited hydrological data, which can provide a scientific basis for the management and protection of water resources in alpine mountainous areas.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41961002, U1603342) and the Natural Science Foundation Program of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Special Training for Minorities) (2019D03004). The authors also thank the National Meteorological Information Center (NMIC) of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), the Geospatial Data Cloud, the Bajiahu hydrological station in Xinjiang, the National Cryosphere Desert Data Center (NCDC), the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for providing datasets.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, China

    Yin Zhang, Danierhan Sulitan & Keke Hu

  2. Aksu National Station of Observation and Research for Oasis Agro-ecosystem, Aksu, 843017, China

    Yin Zhang, Danierhan Sulitan & Keke Hu

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yin Zhang & Keke Hu

  4. Xinjiang Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Urumqi, 830049, China

    Hanati Gulimire

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  1. Yin Zhang
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  2. Hanati Gulimire
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  4. Keke Hu
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Correspondence to Danierhan Sulitan.

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Zhang, Y., Gulimire, H., Sulitan, D. et al. Monitoring and analysis of snow cover change in an alpine mountainous area in the Tianshan Mountains, China. J. Arid Land 14, 962–977 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-022-0071-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-022-0071-3

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