Glacier Area and Snow Cover Changes in the Range System Surrounding Tarim from 2000 to 2020 Using Google Earth Engine

Glacier and snow are sensitive indicators of regional climate variability. In the early 21st century, glaciers in West Kunlun Pamir regions showed stable or even slightly positive mass budgets, this is anomalous a worldwide context glacier recession. We studied evolution cover to understand whether it could explain area. study, we used thresholding NDSI (Normalized Difference Snow Index) retrieved with MODIS data extract annual area cover. evaluated how trends related five subregions Tarim Basin. The uncertainty our retrievals was assessed by comparing results Landsat-5 TM 2000 Landsat-8 OLI 2020 delineation subregions. Basin decreased 1.32%/a during 2000–2020. fastest reductions were East Tien Shan region, while slowest relative reduction rate observed Pamir, i.e., 0.69%/a 1.08%/a, respectively, stability may be westerlies weather system, which dominates region. temporal variability on different scales. analysis monthly that permanent can reliably delineated months from July September. During summer months, sequence multiple snowfall snowmelt events leads intermittent cover, key feature applied discriminate glacier.