Snow line and Snow Cover Monitoring at High Spatial Resolution in a Mountainous River Basin Based on a Time-lapse Camera at a Daily Scale

Snow line change and snow cover distribution patterns are still poorly understood in steep alpine basins of the Qilian Mountainous region because fast changes in snow cover cannot be observed by current sensing methods due to their short time scale. To address this issue of daily snowline and snow cover observations, a ground-based EOS 7D camera and four infrared digital hunting video cameras (LTL5210A) were installed around the Hulugou river basin (HRB) in the Qilian Mountains along northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau (38 degrees 15'54 '' N, 99 degrees 52'53 '' E) in September 2011. Pictures taken with the EOS 7D camera were georeferenced and the data from four LIL5210A cameras and snow depth sensors were used to assist snow cover estimation. The results showed that the time-lapse photography can be very useful and precise for monitoring snowline and snow cover in mountainous regions. The snowline and snow cover evolution at this basin can be precisely captured at daily scale. In HRB snow cover is mainly established after October, and the maximum snow cover appeared during February and March. The consistent rise of the snowline and decrease in snow cover appeared after middle part of March. This melt process is strongly associated with air temperature increase.