Effects of snow-depth change on spring runoff in cryosphere areas of China

Figures & data

Figure 1. Distribution of the studied river basins and main snow zones in the cryosphere areas of China. NWC, NEC and TP represent snow zones in Northwest China, Northeast China and the Tibetan Plateau, respectively. The numbers on the map represent the different river basins of the study. See Table 1 for station/basin information.

Figure 2. CSSD trends from 1979 to the 2010s in 19 river basins of the cryosphere areas of China. The significant increase/decrease denotes the trend of CSSD change for a basin is significant at p ≤ 0.1. CSSD is the average snow depth from November to the following March.

Figure 3. Spring runoff trends from 1979 to the 2010s in the 19 river basins in the cryosphere areas of China. The significant increase/decrease denotes the trend of spring runoff change for a basin is significant at p ≤ 0.1. Spring runoff refers to the average runoff during the period from March to May.

Figure 4. Snowmelt runoff changes in the main cryosphere watershed of the Northern Hemisphere, for the basins of the Lena, Yenisei and Ob rivers (Yang et al. 2003), the Syr Darya, Amu Darya, Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra and Mekong rivers (Savoskul and Smakhtin 2013), the Colorado River (Painter et al. 2010), the Rhine River (Junghans et al. 2011) and the Tarim, Yangtze, Yellow and Hailar rivers (our study).

Figure 5. Changes in the index – dividing the runoff for a month (m³/s) by the CSSD (cm) – for (a) March and (b) May in the cryosphere areas of China.

Table 1. Studied river basins in the cryosphere areas of China. Snow zones are NWC: Northwest China; NEC: Northeast China; and TP: Tibetan Plateau.

Snow zone	ID	River	Area (km^2)	Mean altitude (m a.s.l.)	Hydrological station	Longitude (°N)	Latitude (°E)	Altitude (m a.s.l.)	Period
NEC	1	Nenjiang River	17 205	460.8	Shihuiyao	125.48	50.03	420	1956–2012
	2	Argun River	7 711	938.3	Mangui	122.05	52.05	626	1973–2012
	3	Hailar River	15 195	893.9	Yakeshi	120.67	49.33	662	1959–2012
	4	Hailar River	43 164	853.5	Bahou	119.73	49.27	604	1957–2012
TP	5	Yellow River	121 972	4120.7	Tangnaihe	100.15	35.5	3350	1956–2014
	6	Yangtze River	137 740	4763.2	Zhimenda	97.11	33.02	3560	1957–2014
	7	Yalong River	32 925	4459.5	Ganzi	99.6	31.4	3394	1956–2014
	8	Dang River	14 325	3898.4	Dangchengwan	94.88	39.5	2188	1966–2014
	9	Shule River	10 961	3956.9	Changmabao	96.85	39.82	2112	1953–2014
	10	Hei River	10 009	3672.1	Yingluoxia	100.18	38.82	1674	1944–2014
	11	Shiyang River	851	3482.7	Zamusi	102.57	37.70	1495	1952–2014
NWC	12	Toxkan River	19 166	3338.8	Shaliguilanke	78.60	40.95	1909	1957–2011
	13	Kunmalike River	12 816	3378.8	Xiehela	79.62	41.57	1427	1960–2011
	14	Kamusilang River	1 834	3224.4	Kamuluke	81.57	41.85	1480	1957–2011
	15	Kalasu River	1 350	2849.0	Kalasu	82.13	42.00	1541	1959–2011
	16	Heizi River	3 342	2480.6	Heizi	82.60	41.92	1320	1959–2011
	17	Kuche River	3 118	2565.5	Langan	83.07	41.90	1280	1957–2011
	18	Urumqi River	924	3103.1	Yingxiongqiao	87.20	43.37	1920	1958–2012
	19	Hutubi River	1 840	3003.4	Shimen	86.59	43.79	1317	1977–2011

Table 2. Parameters of passive microwave sensors on various satellites^a.

Sensor	SMMR	SSM/I	SSMI/S
Platform	NIMBUS-7	DMSP F-08, 11, 13	DMSP-F17
Time series	1978.10.26–1987.08.20	1987.9.7–2009.4.28	2008.1.1–2016.12
Viewing angle (°)	50.2	53.1	53.1
Data acquisition	Every other day	Daily	Daily
Swath width (km)	780	1400	1700
Spatial resolution (km)	18: 60 × 40 37: 30 × 20	19.35: 69 × 43 37: 37 × 28	19.35: 69 × 43 37: 37 × 28

^aParameters were derived from the Cold and Arid Regions Sciences Data Center at Lanzhou (http://westdc.westgis.ac.cn) and Dai et al. (2015).

Table 3. Change trends in CSSD and spring runoff in the cryosphere areas of China. CSSD denotes cold season snow depth from November to March of the following year. CSSD change and runoff change were estimated by the Mann-Kendall test. Italic, bold and underlined values indicate statistical significance of p ≤ 0.1, p ≤ 0.05 and p ≤ 0.01, respectively. See Table 1 for station/basin information.

				Runoff change (m^3/s per year)
Snow zone	Sub-zone	ID	CSSD change (cm/year)	March	April	May	Spring
NEC	Plains	1	–0.17	0.00	−2.25	−3.51	−1.92
		2	−0.04	0.00	−0.02	−0.77	−0.27
		3	−0.12	0.01	−3.66	−4.91	−2.87
		4	−0.12	0.10	−7.22	−10.30	−5.08
TP	Plateaus	5	−0.00	0.50	−0.62	−5.08	−1.63
		6	−0.03	0.28	0.65	0.17	0.28
		7	0.00	0.19	−0.08	−0.03	0.23
	Qilian Mountains	8	0.05	0.06	0.07	0.03	0.05
		9	0.03	0.01	0.07	−0.16	−0.05
		10	0.00	0.13	0.29	0.08	0.16
		11	0.09	0.00	−0.01	−0.13	−0.05
NWC	Southern Tienshan Mountains	12	0.08	−0.02	0.31	0.09	−0.12
		13	0.02	0.00	0.17	0.10	0.04
		14	0.03	0.01	0.00	−0.29	−0.10
		15	0.06	0.01	0.01	−0.11	−0.03
		16	−0.01	0.04	−0.01	−0.17	−0.06
		17	−0.05	0.00	−0.02	−0.37	−0.15
	Northern Tienshan Mountains	18	−0.05	0.00	0.00	−0.09	−0.04
		19	−0.06	0.00	0.01	−0.14	−0.03

Table 4. Correlation analysis between CSSD and the runoff during spring. CSSD denotes snow depth from November to March of the following year. Italic, bold and underlined values indicate statistical significance of p ≤ 0.1, p ≤ 0.05 and p ≤ 0.01, respectively. See Table 1 for station/basin information.

Snow zone	Sub-zone	ID	Correlation coefficient
			March	April	May	Spring
NEC	Plains	1	0.01	0.38	0.48	0.48
		2	−0.11	0.66	0.81	0.86
		3	−0.40	0.51	0.28	0.42
		4	−0.21	0.54	0.36	0.49
TP	Plateaus	5	−0.16	0.40	0.39	0.42
		6	−0.01	0.20	0.43	0.40
		7	0.19	0.54	0.01	0.23
	Qilian Mountains	8	0.34	0.42	0.38	0.48
		9	0.13	0.14	0.26	0.31
		10	−0.08	0.17	0.56	0.45
		11	0.23	0.21	0.28	0.32
NWC	Southern Tienshan Mountains	12	−0.20	0.39	0.35	0.50
		13	0.02	0.26	0.13	0.18
		14	0.36	0.24	0.15	0.26
		15	0.07	0.23	0.22	0.26
		16	0.22	0.15	0.19	0.25
		17	0.15	0.36	0.34	0.39
	Northern Tienshan Mountains	18	−0.01	0.18	0.38	0.37
		19	−0.05	0.31	0.46	0.50

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