Spatial distribution of satellite snow cover in typical area of Tianshan Mountains based on MODIS

The spatial distribution of snow cover in typical area of Tianshan Mountains is studied based on snow cover frequency (SCF) acquired from snow cover products of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the NASA Terra spacecraft from 2000 to 2010. Results show that the regions with mean annual SCF >;70% mainly locate in high altitude areas, while lower altitude areas have lower SCF. In addition, the SCF generally decreases from west and north to east and south in January, while they are similar and both significantly correlate with altitude in April and October. Only areas above the snowline are covered by snow in July. Furthermore, the distribution of snow cover in winter is mainly controlled by the atmospheric circulation, as a result there is much more snow cover accumulates over the west and north slopes which are windward, while it shares less snow accumulation over the other slopes.