On Trends in Snow Cover during the Winter Season Over The North – Eastern Himalayas (2000 – 2018)

Abstract

Snow and glaciers in the North-Eastern Himalayas are primary water resources for various rivers originating in the eastern side of the Himalayan range. Global warming and changes in the climate system are believed to play a pivotal role in the changes of snow cover over the North-Eastern Himalayas. The analysis of data from remote sensing sensors can provide useful inputs to studies related to snow cover monitoring and impact assessment. In this work, level 3 monthly snow cover data derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor (on board Terra) at a spatial resolution of 0.05°×0.05° has been used to study the changes in snow cover during the time period 2000–2018 over the North-East Himalayas (25–40°N and 88–105°E). We have divided the entire region equally into five different elevation zones named as, Zone 1 (1000–2000 m), Zone 2 (2000–3000 m), Zone 3 (3000–4000 m), Zone 4 (4000–5000 m) and Zone 5 (5000–6000 m). Analysis of snow cover trend lines shows an overall decreasing trend over the study area for the different elevation zones during the winter months (December, January and February) except for a few areas where we observed increasing trends also.

Keywords: Snow cover, North-East Himalaya, MODIS, trends, on board Terra

Cite this Article

Soubhik Biswas, Manu Mehta, Arka Ghosh. On Trends in Snow Cover during the Winter Season over the North-Eastern Himalayas (2000–2018). Journal of Remote Sensing & GIS. 2019; 10(1): 1–8p.