Role of blowing snow in snow processes in Qilian Mountainous region

Blowing snow is an important part of snow hydrologic processes in mountainous region, however the related researches were rare for the Qilian mountainous region where blowing snow is frequent. Using the observation dataset in 2008 snow season in Binggou watershed in Qilian mountainous region, we systematically studied the energy and mass processes of blowing snow by field observation and model simulation. The results include the analysis of snow observation, the occurrence probability of blowing snow, blowing snow transport and blowing snow sublimation. It was found that blowing snow was obvious in high altitude region (4,146 m), the snow redistribution phenomena was remarkable. In Yakou station in the study region, blowing snow was easily occurred in midwinter and early spring when no snowmelt, the blowing snow transport was dominated in this period; when snowmelt beginning, the occurrence probability of blowing snow decreased heavily because of the increasing air temperature, melt, and refrozen phenomena. The blowing snow sublimation accounted for 41.5% of total snow sublimation at Yakou station in 2008 snow season.