Study on Snow Line in the Tianshan Mountains Based on MODIS Image

Using MOD10A1, temperature and precipitation of 21 meteorological observatories and HJ-1/CCD data from July to September during 2002—2013, this paper takes the Tianshan Mountains as the study area to analyze the space distribution characteristics of snow line and its influencing factors. The results show that the snowline distribution of southern and northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains is that it is high in the south and east but low in north and west; the snowline of southern slope is sparse and there is a small spatial gradient change; the snow line is dense in the middle of northern slope, and the spatial gradient change is not large. Through the analysis of the whole study area, it is found that the correlation coefficient between snow line altitude and temperature is 0.159, and the partial correlation coefficient between them is -0.212; the correlation coefficient between snow line altitude and precipitation is -0.668, and the partial correlation coefficient between them is -0.676. Precipitation is the dominant factor that affects the distribution of snow line of southern and northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains.