Glaciers in arid regions

Glaciers in mountains play an important role as water resources in an arid area. Observations for glacier msass balance process were hence carried out at the July 1st glaciers in Qilian Mountains in northern Tibetan Plateau for estimating fluctuations of discharge from glaciers. The heat balance calculation indicated that strong solar radiation contributes to melt the glacier ice with low surface albedo, caused by the abundance of the black organism \u27Cryoconite’living on the glacier surface. Observational results indicated that roughly half of the water, percolated into the surface layer such as meltwater and rain was refrozen in the glacier. These refreezing process has to be taken into account in estimating the discharge from the glacier. These characteristics, which affect the mass balance of the glacier have to be elucidated in order to estimate the fluctuation in the discharge from glaciers in accordance with the climate change