Seasonal snow cover regime and historical change in Central Asia from 1986 to 2008

A series of statistics describing seasonal Snow Cover Extent and timing in Central Asia (CA) have been derived from AVHRR satellite images for the time period from 1986 to 2008. Analysis of long term mean snow cover statistics shows that the area weighted mean of long term Snow Covering Days (SCD) for the whole CA is 95.2±65.7days. High elevation mountainous areas above 3000m in Altai, Tien Shan and Pamir, which account for about 2.8% of total area in CA, have SCD >240days. Deserts (Karakorum Desert, Taklamakan Desert, Kumtag Desert) and rain shadow areas of major mountains, accounting for 27.0% of total area in CA, have SCD in the range of 0–30days.