Mcteorologicaldataat17weatherstationsintheTianshanMountainsfrom1959to2003wereanalyzedtoexplorethevariationsintemperatureandsnowcover.TheabruptchangetestforsnowdepthwasperformedusingMann-Kendallstatistic.ThespatialdistributionofmaximumsnowdepthwascalculatedbyemployingGIDSinterpolationandDEMdata.Theresultsshowthatmeantemperatureinwinterhadarisingtrendatarateof0.44℃/10a.Theminimumtemperatureinwinterincreasedmoreevidentlyatarateof0.79℃/10a.Themaximumsnowdepthhasobviouslydeepenedatarateof1.15cm/10ainthepast45years,anditwasabout16%higherthantheaverageduring1991-2003.TheMann-Kendallstatistictestofsnowdepthindicatesthattheabruptchangeoccurredin1976.ThemaximumincrementforsnowcoverdepthoccurredinZhaoshu(Kunes)(39.3%)andNilka(39.7%)inthewestTiansbanMountains.Incontrast,thesnowcoverdepthreducedby17%inBarkolintheeastTianshanMountains.Therewasaprimarychangeperiodicityofabout2.8yearsinsnowcover.Inaddition,snowcoverdayswithadepthmorethan10cmincreaseddistinctly,however,therewasnoobviousadvanceordelayinsnowbeginningandendingdates.
