Spatial Distribution and Temporal Variation of Snow Water Resources in China during 1993-2002

The snow storage retrieved from passive microwave remote sensing brightness temperature data has the following features: 1) there is no a positive increasing or decreasing trend of snow storage in 1993_2002, but an annual variation exists; 2) there are several main snow packs including Northeast, North of Xinjiang, the East Tibetan Plateau and the periphery of the plateau, and North China plain; 3) there are some main stable snow-cover regions, such as Northeast China and North China, North of Xinjiang, and the Tibetan Plateau; 4) the snow storage in the Tibetan Plateau is less than that in Northeast China, while the number of days of snow cover in the former is more than that in the latter. The snow cover in the Tibetan Plateau, however, is more important in climate significance rather than in water resources. The mean maximum of annual snow water resources in China is about 102^79 km~(3) in 1993_2002, with the maximum one, about 131^34 km~(3), in the year 1999/2000.