Advances in the Measurement and Calculation Results and Influencing Factors of the Sublimation of Ice and Snow

As an important exchange process of water and heat between the cryosphere and the atmosphere, snow and glacier sublimation is a principal pathway of moisture content loss of cryosphere. The observations and simulations of snow and glacier sublimation for the process and influencing factors were conducted earlier in the Antarctic and the Arctic Pole, North America and northern Europe, and had made great progress. Based on the analysis of the sublimation of ice and snow and the latent heat of sublimation in different regions and climatic conditions, the influencing factors to sublimation of ice and snow were analyzed. Although sublimation of ice and snow is an important part of regional hydrological process and energy budget balance, under humid climate conditions, sublimation of ice and snow is inhibited. it is greatly affected by local topography(elevation, slope and aspect), vegetation and meteorological elements, resulting in large differences in reported sublimation of ice and snow. However, there are many factors that affect the sublimation, resulting in the obvious spatial and temporal differences of research results. The researches lack of long-term, systematic observation and research, and which has contributed to the lack of understanding in the water-heat process of snow and glacier. There are still great uncertainties and difficulties in this study that need to be overcome.