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Albedo, which impacts the surface heat budget of a glacier, is a dominant factor governing snow and ice melt variability. We analyzed variations in albedo on the Dongkemadi Glacier (92°4.94′E, 33°05.88′N) using MODIS daily snow albedo products. The results show that the summer albedo over the accumulation zone and the ablation zone all presented a decreasing trend from 2002 to 2012, and both precipitation and summer temperature were critical factors that impacted variations in the albedo of the glacier. We linked the albedo variation with the measured mass balance of the glacier and found that 2006 and 2010 were high-melt years at the Dongkemadi Glacier, with lower albedo and a more negative mass balance. The area around the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) on the glacier was very sensitive to albedo feedback. The albedo change rate reached approximately -34% when the summer average temperature increased about 1 °C and the summer precipitation declined 94.5 mm. We built a linear model between the ...

Glacial melting in the Tibetan Plateau affects the water resources of millions of people. This study finds that—partly owing to changes in atmospheric circulations and precipitation patterns—the most intensive glacier shrinkage is in the Himalayan region, whereas glacial retreat in the Pamir Plateau region is less apparent.

Glacial retreat on the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding regions is characteristic since the 1960s and has intensified in the past 10 yr. The magnitude of glacial retreat is relatively small in the interior of the Tibetan Plateau and increases to the margins of the plateau, with the greatest retreat around the edges. Glacial retreat in this region is impacting the hydrological processes in the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding regions. The glacial retreat has caused an increase of more than 5.5% in river runoff from the plateau. In some areas, such as the Tarim River basin, the increase in river runoff is greater. Glacial retreat has also caused rising lake levels in the areas with large coverage of glaciers, such as the Nam Co Lake and Selin Co Lake areas. Rising lake levels are devastating grasslands and villages near the lakes.

Glaciers in the Muztag Ata and Konggur mountains of the eastern Pamir plateau, northwestern China, have been monitored by applying aerial photo stereo models (1962/66) and Landsat TM (1990) and ETM+ (1999) images, all of which have been compared in order to detect areal and frontal changes through the past four decades. The mean frontal retreat of glaciers in the Muztag Ata and Konggur mountains increased from 6.0 ma−1 between 1962/66 and 1990 to 11.2ma−1 between 1990 and 1999, with an overall glacier length reduction of 9.9% for the whole study period. The glacier area has decreased by 7.9%, mainly due to changes observed in the most recent period (1990–99), when the annual area loss almost tripled to 1.01 km2 a−1. Based on meteorological data from Taxkogan station since 1957, we conclude that climate change, particularly the rise in summer temperature after 1994, is the main forcing factor in glacier shrinkage.

Desertification in Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau is part of Chinese desertification. In the past decades, due to the climate warming, the climate condition in Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau has been relatively dry. This has resulted in permafrost degradation and other environmental problems. In addition, the vegetation and the soil layer were also destroyed by unreasonable economic activities. Cultivated and grassland lands have become deserted. Nowadays, the desertification is still expending. In this paper, the factors affecting the desertification in Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau were examined, and the desertification as well as its relationship with permafrost degradation was also discussed.

temperature Abstract. Recent studies have detected the amplitude of spring plant phenology in whole Tibet Plateau and growing season by remote sensing technology. However, few studies have examined that how the plant phenology has changed in the past decade. At the regional scale, we investigated the phenological variations in five regions (Dingri, Gaize, Pula, Yangtze River and Yellow River source areas) in the hinterland of the Tibetan Plateau from 2001 to 2010 using remote sensing technology. To analyze differentiation of vegetation phenology, we characterize the green up variation along a gradient from outer edge to inland horizontal zonation on the Tibetan Plateau using remote sensing technology. To examine phenological inter-annual variation, we found that a significant lengthening of vegetation growing season has been occurring in most study regions, marked by an earlier beginning. Taking 31°N as the boundary, the beginning of the growing season (BGS) for alpine vegetation in Dingri area in the southern Tibetan Plateau delayed of 11.6 days from 2001 to 2010, however it shows an obvious advance trend in northern area of the Tibetan Plateau. Interestingly, the advance days of BGS is increasing from 5.1 days/decade to 13.1 days/decade in northern Tibet Plateau during the last decade. The inter-annual variation of the end of the growing season for alpine vegetation was not obvious, and most of the study regions had natural inter-annual fluctuations. Analysis of the meteorological records in the study areas shows that spring temperature rising appears to be a critical factor contributing to the earlier green up and prolonged growing season in the northern TP; nevertheless, spring precipitation plays a more important role than spring temperature in Dingri region in the southern Tibetan Plateau.