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 ∼18724 km2 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.
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