Satellite Snow-Cover Monitoring in the Qilian Mountains and an Analysis for Characteristics of Stream Snow-Melt Run-Off in the Hexi Region, Gansu, China

The images of NOAA/TIROS-N APT, AVHRR and a few Landsat MSS obtained from 1980 to 1985 are analysed in this paper. It is found that the snow-cover distribution in Qilian Mountains is above 3700 m a.s.l. during winter to spring every year. There are two concentrations of snow cover. One is on Mount Leng Longling in the upper reaches of the Shiyang River and the other is located between Hala Lake and Mount Danghe Nanshan.Based on preliminary investigations, it is known that the surface water resource in the Hexi region is 68 8 × 108 m3, of which about 24.8% is from glaciers and melting, and the snow-melt run-off is 7.63 × 108 m3, equal to 62.6% of the total amount of spring run-off.The average value of Cv for spring run-off in the Shiyang River, Heihe River, and Shule River is 0 32 and the Cv value of snow-melt run-off in spring is 0.41, about three times as much as that of the annual run-off in the Hexi, region. A prediction model of spring snow-melt run-off at the Ying Louxia Hydrometric station in the Heihe River area can be constructed by using hydrometeorological data and snow-cover percentage for the Heihe River basin obtained from NOAA/TIROS-N APT, and AVHRR images. The prediction models (2) and (3) have been tested by the Water Resources Management Office of the Heihe River basin in the Zhangye and Flood Prevention Office of Gansu Province. The prediction accuracy is suitable for demands.

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Satellite Snow-Cover Monitoring in the Qilian Mountains and an Analysis for Characteristics of Stream Snow-Melt Run-Off in the Hexi Region, Gansu, China

Annals of Glaciology ◽

10.1017/s0260305500000677 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

pp. 225-228 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Zeng Qunzhi ◽

Zhang Shunying ◽

Chen Xianzhang ◽

Wang Jian

Keyword(s):

Snow Cover ◽

River Basin ◽

Prediction Models ◽

Qilian Mountains ◽

Heihe River Basin ◽

Heihe River ◽

Snow Melt ◽

Run Off ◽

Hexi Region ◽

The Heihe River Basin

The images of NOAA/TIROS-N APT, AVHRR and a few Landsat MSS obtained from 1980 to 1985 are analysed in this paper. It is found that the snow-cover distribution in Qilian Mountains is above 3700 m a.s.l. during winter to spring every year. There are two concentrations of snow cover. One is on Mount Leng Longling in the upper reaches of the Shiyang River and the other is located between Hala Lake and Mount Danghe Nanshan.Based on preliminary investigations, it is known that the surface water resource in the Hexi region is 68 8 × 108m3, of which about 24.8% is from glaciers and melting, and the snow-melt run-off is 7.63 × 108m3, equal to 62.6% of the total amount of spring run-off.The average value of Cv for spring run-off in the Shiyang River, Heihe River, and Shule River is 0 32 and the Cv value of snow-melt run-off in spring is 0.41, about three times as much as that of the annual run-off in the Hexi, region. A prediction model of spring snow-melt run-off at the Ying Louxia Hydrometric station in the Heihe River area can be constructed by using hydrometeorological data and snow-cover percentage for the Heihe River basin obtained from NOAA/TIROS-N APT, and AVHRR images. The prediction models (2) and (3) have been tested by the Water Resources Management Office of the Heihe River basin in the Zhangye and Flood Prevention Office of Gansu Province. The prediction accuracy is suitable for demands.

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The Impact of Mountain Range Geographic Orientation on the Altitude Effect of Precipitation δ18O in the Upper Reaches of the Heihe River Basin in the Qilian Mountains

Water ◽

10.3390/w10121797 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (12) ◽

pp. 1797 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jianqiao He ◽

Wei Zhang ◽

Yuwei Wu

Keyword(s):

Water Vapor ◽

River Basin ◽

Qilian Mountains ◽

Heihe River Basin ◽

Heihe River ◽

Mountain Range ◽

The Qilian Mountains ◽

The Impact ◽

The Heihe River Basin ◽

Precipitation Δ18o

The precipitation δ18O-elevation gradients are important for paleoclimate, hydrology, and paleoelevation studies. The field setting for this research was the upper reaches of the Heihe River Basin within the Qilian Mountains in the Northern Tibetan Plateau. Three study sites were established along the Heihe main river. These sites were the Yingluoxia and Qilian hydrological stations and the Yeniugou meteorological station. The Yingluoxia hydrological station was the dividing point between the upper and middle reaches of the Heihe River Basin. The altitudes of these sites range from 1600 m to 3300 m. Summer precipitation is predominant with regard to the annual precipitation amount. By analysis of variance (ANOVA), the precipitation δ18O data collected from the three sites were analyzed, spanning a year of precipitation data from 2007.10 to 2008.9. The results showed that the δ18O-elevation gradient was not significant (α = 0.05) at a seasonal or annual scale in this region and the precipitation-weighted annual mean δ18O was −7.1‰. Mechanisms that have been proposed to explain this result consider the role of two processes, including (1) mixing of moisture sources, a process common in an arid and semiarid region, and (2) the absence of a mechanism for water vapor to climb along slopes in the precipitation system. Atmospheric water vapor mainly travels along the trend of the Qilian Mountains range rather than climbing it because this region is dominated by the westerlies and the trend of the Qilian mountains is geographically aligned to the NWW (north-west-west) direction. We demonstrated that, aside from the water vapor source, the spatial relationship between the water vapor transport pathway and the trend of the mountain range are the main driving factors associated with the stable isotope trends in precipitation. As a result, it is important to re-recognize the timing and location of groundwater recharge in the Heihe River Basin.

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Integrated hydrometeorological – snow – frozen ground observations in the alpine region of the Heihe River Basin, China

10.5194/essd-2019-11 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tao Che ◽

Xin Li ◽

Shaomin Liu ◽

Hongyi Li ◽

Ziwei Xu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Snow Cover ◽

River Basin ◽

Alpine Region ◽

Heihe River Basin ◽

Heihe River ◽

Hydrological Models ◽

Frozen Ground ◽

Observation Network ◽

The Heihe River Basin

Abstract. The alpine region is important in riverine and watershed ecosystems as a contributor of freshwater, providing and stimulating specific habitats for biodiversity. In parallel, recent climate change, human activities and other perturbations may disturb hydrological processes and eco-functions, creating the need for next-generation observational and modeling approaches to advance a predictive understanding of such processes in the alpine region. However, several formidable challenges, including the cold and harsh climate, high altitude and complex topography, inhibit complete and consistent data collection where/when needed, which hinders the development of remote sensing technologies and alpine hydrological models. The current study presents a suite of datasets consisting of long-term hydrometeorological, snow cover and frozen ground data for investigating watershed science and functions from an integrated, distributed and multiscale observation network in the upper reaches of the Heihe River Basin (HRB) in China. Gap-free meteorological and hydrological data were monitored from an observation network connecting a group of automatic meteorological stations (AMSs). In addition, to capture snow accumulation and ablation processes, snow cover properties were collected from a snow observation superstation using state-of-the-art techniques and instruments. High-resolution soil physics datasets were also obtained to capture the freeze-thaw processes from a frozen ground observation superstation. The updated datasets were released to scientists with multidisciplinary backgrounds (i.e., cryosphere science, hydrology, and meteorology), and they are expected to serve as a testing platform to provide accurate forcing data and validate and evaluate remote sensing products and hydrological models for a broader community. The datasets are available from the Cold and Arid Regions Science Data Center at Lanzhou https://doi.org/10.3972/hiwater.001.2019.db.

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Integrated hydrometeorological, snow and frozen-ground observations in the alpine region of the Heihe River Basin, China

Earth System Science Data ◽

10.5194/essd-11-1483-2019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 1483-1499 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Tao Che ◽

Xin Li ◽

Shaomin Liu ◽

Hongyi Li ◽

Ziwei Xu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Snow Cover ◽

River Basin ◽

Alpine Region ◽

Heihe River Basin ◽

Heihe River ◽

Hydrological Models ◽

Frozen Ground ◽

Observation Network ◽

The Heihe River Basin

Abstract. The alpine region is important in riverine and watershed ecosystems as a contributor of freshwater, providing and stimulating specific habitats for biodiversity. In parallel, recent climate change, human activities and other perturbations may disturb hydrological processes and eco-functions, creating the need for next-generation observational and modeling approaches to advance a predictive understanding of such processes in the alpine region. However, several formidable challenges, including the cold and harsh climate, high altitude and complex topography, inhibit complete and consistent data collection where and when it is needed, which hinders the development of remote-sensing technologies and alpine hydrological models. The current study presents a suite of datasets consisting of long-term hydrometeorological, snow cover and frozen-ground data for investigating watershed science and functions from an integrated, distributed and multiscale observation network in the upper reaches of the Heihe River Basin (HRB) in China. Meteorological and hydrological data were monitored from an observation network connecting a group of automatic meteorological stations (AMSs). In addition, to capture snow accumulation and ablation processes, snow cover properties were collected from a snow observation superstation using state-of-the-art techniques and instruments. High-resolution soil physics datasets were also obtained to capture the freeze–thaw processes from a frozen-ground observation superstation. The updated datasets were released to scientists with multidisciplinary backgrounds (i.e., cryospheric science, hydrology and meteorology), and they are expected to serve as a testing platform to provide accurate forcing data and validate and evaluate remote-sensing products and hydrological models for a broader community. The datasets are available from the Cold and Arid Regions Science Data Center at Lanzhou (https://doi.org/10.3972/hiwater.001.2019.db, Li, 2019).

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