Spatio-temporal analysis of snow cover and effect of terrain attributes in the Upper Ganga River Basin, central Himalaya

Abstract

Continuous monitoring of snow cover area (SCA) in space and time is a vital input to estimate the snow/glacier melt runoff, glacial mass balance and other hydrological studies. The present study aims to find out the spatio-temporal variation of SCA and inter-relationship between snow accumulation and topography in the Upper Ganga River Basin (UGRB) including Bhagirathi, Alaknanda, Mandakini and Pindar River sub-basins, central Himalaya using MODIS Terra (MOD10A2) data. SCA is found 32.33% to the total basin area of 18724km2 in UGRB. The Average of 12 year shows that Bhagirathi River Basin has maximum SCA 33.25%, whereas Pindar river basin has minimum SCA 17.50% among these four sub-basins. Maximum rate of change of SCA is found in the Mandakini River Basin. Slope class 20 –30 has more favorable conditions for snow accumulation. North and north-west aspect has higher snow accumulation with maximum positive attribution in January and minimum in July.