ASABE Technical Library - Abstract

Abstract Glaciers and snow coverages play important roles in water resources in the Tibetan Plateau. Due to global warming, identifying the ablation characteristics is of significance in alpine regions. In this study, MODIS was used to extract the glacier and snow coverage of the Rongbuk basin, on the northern slope of the Himalayas, over a period of 10 years (2005 to 2014). The results showed that the temporal change in glacier and snow coverage was not significant (Cv=0.09), the annual variation curve of glacier and snow coverage was "double-peak mode" (Cv=0.23). The most intense ablation period was July to August, while the February and November were the main accumulation stages of seasonal snow. As the southern basin with a higher elevation (>6000m), steeper slope (>35°), and larger shade proportion (54.43%), there were significant differences in spatial distribution of glacier and snow. The temporal and spatial variability of glacier and snow coverage in the Rongbuk basin were affected by both temperature and precipitation, while temperature rise was the main reason of glacier and snow ablation.