BulletinofGlaciologicalResearch21（2004）17L22⑥JapaneseSociety ofSnowandIce

ヱ7

Meteoro10gicalcharacteristicsin upstreamregionsoftheQira River，Kunlun Mountains，China

Osamu ABElandLiangweiWANG2

1SnowandIceResearchGroup，NationalResearchInstituteforEarthScienceandDisasterPrevention，1400Tokamachi，Shinjo996．0091Japan
2SouthwestBranch，ChinaAcademyofRailwaySciences，118ⅩyuechengStreet，Chengdu610031PeoplesRepublicofChina（ReceivedAugust20，2003；RevisedmanuscriptreceivedNovemberll，2003）

Abstract

ThemeteorologlCalcharacteristicsatKartashwereinvestigatedusingsurfacedataobtainedin

Situduringa6−yearperiodfromSeptember1991toAugust1997．Kartashislocatedintheupstream
regionsoftheQiraRiver，KunlunMountains，anditselevationisabout2800ma．s．1．Localcirculation
OCCurSCOnStantlyinthisarea，andwinddirectionswitchesfrequentlythroughouttheyear：nOrtheast−
erlyduringtheday，tOSOuthwesterlyatnight，alongastreamlineoftheslope．Inthemonsoonseason
fromMaytoAugust，theheaviestrainfa1loccursbetween17002300（Beijingtime）whenupstream

Windblowsasaresultofthelocalcirculation．Acomparisonofmonthlyairtemperaturesbetween
KartashandQirarevealsthatthelocalcirculationinsummercontainsdryairoverthedesert，andacoldairmassisformedatthefootofthemountainsduringthewintermonths．

1．lntr・Oduction

MeteorologicalcharacteristicsinhighmountainT
OuSareaSareimportantforestimatingtheamountof

Waterflowinrivers，eSpeCiallyindesertareas．Ithas

beenreportedthatsomeglaciersareretreatingduetoglobalwarminginCentralAsia（Ageta，1995；Aizenet
al．，1997；Wang et al．，2001）．In addition，Climatic

informationhasbeenobtainedfromicecoresamples

fromtheKunlunMountainsbyNakawo etal．（1990）．
However，tO date，long−term direct meteorologicalobservationshavenotbeencarried outintheKunlun

Mountains．In1991，a data collection platform wasinsta11ed attheupstream regions of the Qira River，
KunlunMountains，andacompletedatasetcovering

6 years was stored．In this paper，meteOrOlogical

Characteristics at the observation site are reported
uslngthedataset．
2．Observations
2．了．0ゐsgγ〃αだ0乃Sf≠eTheobservationsiteislocatedinavalleyinthe
upstream regions of the Qira River．The geometricpositionislatitude36016′Nandlongitude80025′E，and

the siteis approximately2800m above sealevel（symboIAinFig．1）．Thevalleyfaces550fromnorthtoeast，anditsmeaninclinationisapproximatelyl／
20．The observation siteis named

Kartashafter theSmallnearbyvillage．Themeteorologicaldata obser−

VedatKartashiscomparedwiththatatQira，WhichFig．1．Topography around the meteorologicalobserva−
tion sites．Elevationis expressedin feet，A：Kartash（2800ma．s．1．），B：Qira（1400ma．s．1．）．

BulletinofGlaciologjcalResearch

n′ヽ

15

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l

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J

−135

・180

−90

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0

・45

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135

180

Fig．2．ThemountainridgeandsunpathdiagramsforeachSeaSOn．▲：Summer SOIstice，●：Spring and autumn

equinoxes，4：WintersoIstice．000fazimuthmeansto

thesouth．Timeis Beijingtime．

islocatedatthefoot（37001′N，80O48′E，1400ma．s．1．）of the Kunlun Mountains（symboIBin Fig．1）．The

ridgeofthemountainobstructspartoftheskyaroundthesiteofKartash．Figure2showsthemountainridge
atKartashandthetracksofthesunduringthespring

and autumn equinoxes，the summer and winter sol−
Stices．In this paper，Only Chinese Standard Time
（Beijingtime），Whichis8hoursearlierthanCoordinat−ed UniversalTime（UTC），is used．Noon at Kartash

appears about2hours40minuteslater than Beijing

time．Themaximumelevationangleofthesurround−inghillsis300inthesoutherndirection，SOthesunis
mostlyhiddenbythemountainsinwinter．

Fig．3．DataCollectionPlatforminstalledatKartash．

ユニ（）ねt−Jて・（JJわJJ川l，〃いdShield．A snow−Weight meter was used to observe
ADataCollectionPlatform（DCP）wasdeveloped
SnOWaCCumulationinsteadofaraingaugeinwinter，
byT．Kimura（Abe et alリ1995）andinstalledin Sep−
tember1991（Fig．3）．TheDCPwasusedtoobtaindata becausetheraingaugewasnotavailableattempera−
On the followlng meteOrOloglCalitems：air tempera−
tures below O OC unless a snow−melting heater wasadditionallyequipped．Thepowersourceforallinstru−
ture，SOiltemperature，Wind speed，Wind direction，
solarradiation，albedo，preCipitationandsnowweight． ments was supplied bylithium batteries．Albedois
Tablelshowstheheight，unit，instrumentandrecord− Calculated from upward solar radiation divided byingmethodforeachmeasurementitem．Theairtem− downward solar radiation．Alldatawasstoredinto a
datalogger on anhourlybasis anddownloadedto aperature was measured using a platinum resistance
COmputerOnCea yearinautumn．
thermometer with a naturally aspirated radiation
Tablel．Height，unit，instrumentandrecordingtypeforeachmeasurementitem．
Item
AirTemperature
SoilTemperature＊
WindDirection
WindSpeed
SolarRadiation
AlbedoPrecipitation
SnowWeight

Height（m） Umit
Instrument
1．5 DC Pt．Resistance−0．1 OC
1．5 PotentioMeter
ms−1
1．5 MJm▼2
1．5 Thermopile
0．0

mm

kgm￣2

＊：Undermetalwaferofthesnowweightmeter

SnowWeightMeter

RecordType
Instance
Instance
Instance
Instance
Summation
Average
Summation
InstanceAbeandWang

ノJJ2000）．Meanairtemperatureandprecipitationduring

3．Res山ts and discussion

thesameperiodatQiraarealsoshowninthistable．

ヱJ．上お砂〃αγぬJわ乃5

A complete set of meteorologlCaldata was col−1ected at Kartash during the 6Lyear period from

Qiraislocatedatthefoot（1400ma．s．1．）oftheKunlun
Mountains as shownin Fig．1．The annualmean air

temperatureinKartashdecreasedgraduallyfrom2．6

September1991toAugust1997．Regardingthemete−OC for1992to−2．1OC for1996．However，mean air
OrOlogicalconditions at Kartash，Fig．4shows daily
temperature at the foot of the mountain（Qira）was
Variationsinairtemperature，SOiltemperature，Wind Observedtoremainatvirtuallyconstantlevelsofll．7
Speed，Wind direction，preCipitation and solar radia− to12．7OC．The same trend oftemperature decrease
tioninthemiddleofspecificmonthsin1992；namely， ObservedinKartash was foundin the monthly air
the15th ofJanuary，April，July and October，reSpeC− temperatureforJanuaryatDaxiguo（3539ma．s．1．）intively．Thetimeinthefigureisexpressedin Beijing
the Tianshan Mountains（Han et al．，2002）and thetime（BT）．Maximumairtemperaturesappearat1700
annualairtemperatureintheQilianMountains（Wang
BT for allseasons，andmaximum soiltemperaturesetal．，2001）．Shi（2003）reportedthattheairtemperaT

appearlhourlaterthanthemaximum air temperaT

ture during the1990sin the middle and western

BTthroughouttheyear，becausetheslopefacesthe
northeast．Weakwindswereobservedtoappeartwice
adayaroundllOOand2300BTwhenthewinddirec−

analysis of theice core obtainedin the central

tures．Winddirectionswitchesfrequently，nOrtheaster− regions of northwest China is the warmest period
1y during12002300BT，tO SOuthwesterly2300−1100 recordedinthepastlOOOyears．However，from6180

tion changed．Excluding those periods，Wind speeds
Stayed atlevels betweenト4 ms￣1．As mentioned
before，thesunpassesthemeridianataround1440BT；

COnSequently，thelargest solar radiation appears at
1500BT．Therewasnorainfallinanyofthedays．

ユヱ上り〃g−／（Ⅵナノ川／イ／J／／り〃∫The meteorologlCaldatainKartash for the5Qinghai−Tibetan Plateau，it was found that the tem−
perature decrease was temporaryin the1990s，pel・−

hapscausedbythestrengthofthesummermonsoon（Wang et al．，2003）．From the above results，in the

periodfrom1992to1996，theairtemperatureshowsa
temporarydecreaseinthehighmountainousareasof
the west China．The annualmean wind speeds at
Kartashwerewithinanalmostconstantrangeof2．2

to 2．4 ms￣1．The amount of annualsolar radiation

decreased gradually with annual air temperatures−year period from1992to1996，Whichis complete
between1992and1996，eXCeptin1993when data
throughouteachyear，isshowninTable2（Abeetal．， revealed anincreaseintemperatures．Theamountof
笠
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一入irToml栂ratueSdlTom匹ratuO ■● − ● ●ヽ ● …− ‥− ＝●一 ●− 、■ ●■ ●− ー ■● ・． り．＿ ／＼二

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‥＝・・・

6 12 18 0 6 12 18 0 6 12 18 0

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2

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O
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U
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4

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2 0 6 12 18 0 6 12 18 0 6 12 18 0 6 12 18

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言 0
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言
選
d
0
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d

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C

6
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u
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き

て
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属

0 6 12 18 0 6 12 18 0 6 12 18 0 6 12 18

1992／1／15

1992／4／15

1992／7／15

1992／10／15

Fig．4．Dailyvariationsinthemeteorologicalelementsin
themiddleofthefourseasonsin1992atKartash．Time
isBeijingtime．

20

BulletinofGlaciologicalResearch
Table2．MonthlyandannualvaluesofmeteorologicaldataatKartashandQirain1992▼1996．Shadedce11indicatesprecipitation
measuredbysnowweightmeterinstead ofraingauge．
1992

Jan． Feb，Mar．Apr． May Jun．Jul． Aug． Sep． Oct． Nov．Dec．
Mean

Airtemperature（DC）

−9．3

Max．
Mean

Windspeed（ms1）
Solarradiation（MJm2dayl）

−3．9

6．7

8．1 11．0 13．6 12．9

7，8 13．4 11．9 19．3 19．6

Mir】．
Kartash8．0

20．7 17．ユ ーユ2，2

2．2

2．6

2．2

23．3

3．2

2．7

2．6

2，5

2，7
7，5

6．8

23．9

2．6

4．3

2．2

6．4

0．9

23．4 18．2 12．3
3．9

2．1

6．4

7，9

1．0

2．3

5．3

3．2
9．9

2．6

2．6

2．6

Mean

2．6

6．7

7．6 15．ユ 17．3

6．2

Total

5．9

15．8

−7，0
2．4

Max．

5．6

5．8

6．8

5．6

5．4

5．2

6．1

Mean

4．15

9．40

8．05 13．84 16．02 17、24 17．4114．83 12．49 10．38

6．33

2．11

132．25

Total

4．2

0．3

0．0

0．0

0．0

29．3

Precipitation（mm）
Airtempreature（OC）

Qira

Precipitation（mm）

Airtemperature（OC）

Kar［ashWindspeed（ms1）

4，4

0．2

0．0

0．0

Jan． Feb．Mar．Apr．May Jun．Jul， Aug．Sep． Oct，Nov．Dec．

Totai
1．1

−6．4

3．6

Max．

2．2 12．0 13．5

Mea11

2．3

2，5

MearI

5．5

3

Min．

5．2

6．5

21．1 20．4−26．7 17．2 −16．0
2．4

9．7 10．9

9．3

8．9

0．4

4．0 10．3

22．1 23．8 19，8 19．9 16．1 14，2

9，0

6．1 1．6

3．4

0．4

1．3 、12．4

2．4

2．4

2．1

2．0

2．4

2．5

23．∂

24．6

22．0

2．6

2．5

8．5

Mean

16．1

19．4 23．7

2．3

−10．3

2．4

Max． 6．4 5．4 6．4 7．4 6．6 7．7 6，6 5．3 8．2 5．7 5．4 6．0
6．4
Solarradiation（MJm2day￣1） Mean 5．14 8，56 12．39 17．19 15．25 17．55 13．90 13．83 14．97 11，5（） 6．58 1．62 138．48
Precipitation（mm）
48・0 0・0 0・0 0・5 0，0 205

Qira AirtempreatureぐC）
Precipitation（mm）

1994
Airtemperature（OC）

Kartash6．5 13．7

13．4

1993
Mean

0．0

Windspeed（ms−1）

乱7 18．O i9＿9

20．3 10．5

3．6

3．5

12．1

Total 2 1．1 15 0．0 11．0 4．4 3，3 9．8 0．0 0．0 0．2 0．0 46．8
Jan． Feb．Mar．Apr，May Jun．Jul． Aug．Sep． Oct．Nov．Dec， Total Mean
Mean 12，9 10．7 −■4．0 0．2
6．5
9，1 13．0 11．7 6，1 0．5 1．6 10．1
0，7Max． 2．8 0．7 臥4 18，2 18．1 20．3 22．8 22．6 18．2 12．7 13．2 11．1
14．1
Min， 25．4 19．3 14．7 10．4 6．2 1．3
2．7 1．7 2．6 9，8 12．0 21．5
−9．7
Mean 2．2
2．3
2．6 2．5
2．6 2．4
2．2
2．2
2．2
2．6 2，62．2
2，4Max． 5．8 6．2 6．7 6．8
7．3 8．1 7．7 6．2
6，1 6．3 6．4 6．6
6．7

Solarradiation（MJmp2day1） Mean 3．99 7．00 11．77 11．30 16，09 17．37 18．6116．88 11．76 10．82 7．06 1．91 134，56
Precipitation（mm）
Airtempreature（ロC）
Precipitation（mm）

Qira

Mean 4．4
Total 0．0

Kartash0．0 0．0 5．0 78
9．1 15．4 21．5 25．0 27．5 25，1 18．3 11．0 6．3 3．7
0．0 0．0
0．1 23．1 0．4
6．3
0．0 （）．0 0．0
4．4 34．4

Jan， Feb．Mar，Apr．May Jun．Jul． Aug，Sep． Oct．Nov．Dec．

1995

Airtemperature（QC）

1．5
0．1

Mean

13．0 10．6

5．2

0．2

8．0 10．5 12＿0 12．6

5．8

0．6

Mean

Jan． Feb．Mar．Apr．May Jun．Jul． Aug．Sep． Oct．Nov．Dec．
15．1 13．0 −6．2 0．1 2．5
6．9
7．7
8，7 5．7 1．6 9，5 −11．1

Total

8．3 14．7

12．7

Mean
0．3

Max． 1．3 7．5 12．1 16．0 23．3 20．1 24．8 22．9 16．2 12．2 3．3 ■5．2
12．9
Min． 23．7 −21，6 16．6 −10．9 2．9 2．93，3 2．5 0．1 r10，6 20．0 −24．7−10．2
Mean 2．3
2．3
2．5 2．3
2．4
2．4
2．1 2．2
2．0 2．3 2．4
2．2
2．3
Max． 4．9 5．4
7．3 6．5 6．3 6．4
7．0 6．4
5．7 6＿2
5．3 5．5
6．1
Solarradiation（MJm2day￣1） Mean 4．55 7．87 10．02 10．25 15．27 15．32 16．15 16．24 11．44 9．65 6．78 1，88 125．42
Precipitation（mm）
Qira Airtempreature（OC）
Mean 8．5 0．2 7．9 14．4 22．0 25．2 25．5 25．1 17．9 12，1 3．4 4．0
11．8
Precipitation（mm）
Total 0．7 1．0 0．0 0．0
0．0 0．0
0．0 0．1 45．9 4．8 0．0 0．0 52．5
Windspeed（ms1）

1996
Airtemperature（OC）

Total

Mean

Max． 1．3 9．3 11．4 16．3 14．2 21．3 19．2 20，3 17＿5 11．7 5．8 5．6
12．6
Min， 25．1 24．8 16．3 13．5 5．9 2．6 0．4 0．0 1．8 10．2 20．9 25．7
−12，3
KartashMean 2．3 2．1 2．2 2．4
2．2
2．1 1．9 1．8
2．3 2．4 2．3 2．6
2．2
Windspeed（ms−1）
Max， 5．5 5．7 6．2 6．8 7．4 6．8 5．9 5．6 5．3 5．9 5．1 6，2
6．0
Solarradiation（MJmr2day1） Mean 4．07 8．01 9．46 12．0113．18 13．94 14．72 13．62 12，83 10．78 6．11 1．37 120．10
Precipitation（mm）
17．5 0，0 0．0 169
Qira Airtempreature（QC）
Mean 5．0 −0．2 8．2 15．2 19．3 23．4 23，4 24．（） 19．9 11．8 4＿4 3．8
11＿7
Precipitation（mm）
Total 0．3 0．0 14．1 1．8 1．1 1．4 21）．4 0．6 0．0 0．3 0．0 0．0 40．0

precipitationatKartashvariedwidelyfrom78to205

mmwith an average of152mm，and was2−6times

thatinQiraforeachyearmeasured．Precipitationat
Kartash during eachwinter（from November to thefollowing April）was estimated from the results of
SnOW Weight measurements．Ratios of precipitation
duringthewintertoannualprecipitationforeachyear
were13to26％．

ユ．？．♪／J′川′J／川ノ五J／／り〃（そ／▲川巾／iJ／／

Kartashislocatedunderajetstreamfromwest
to east．The monsoon season descends suddenly on

KartashatthebeginnlngOfMayeachyear．Through−

OutEastAsiathemajorityofprecipitationisaccount−
edforbythe rainfallin the monsoon season（Zhang

andLin，1992；Ding，1994）．PrecipitationatKartashin
themonsoonwasalsodominant，andthetotalprecipi，tation from May to August was74％of the annual

2J

AbeandWang
Table3．Frequency（in％）ofmonthlyprecipitationpatterTIS
in KartashiandQira．

5
4

︵ 3
∈ 2
∈ 1
︶
u
O
焉
l
亘
じ
巴
d

Kartash0

3

6 9 12 15 18 Z1 24
BeujngTime（hr）

Fig．5．Diurnalvariation of average rainfa11for eachmonth．

precipitationduring1992−1996．Figure5shows aver−age diurnalvariation of rainfallfor each monthin
SummeratKartash．Inthisperiodtheheaviestrainfall

Precipitation Occur
Occur
a：34
Notoccur
d：20

Qira

Notoccur
C；9b：37

Qira，Case（b）：preCipitation does not occur at both
Kartash and Qira，Cases（c）and（d）：preCipitation
OCCurSateitherKartashorQira．Cases（a）and（b），in

Whichsimilarprecipitationpatternsappearedatboth

the highelevation area andits foot，COVerS71％of
totalcases．Case（a）mostlyappearedinthemonsoon
SeaSOn．

・●∴了．し、・りハ山／／叫／・！／仙り／／／J小・〃い川・J／ノ／＝り小川／ノ／ハ、
れイJt−…JんけんJ5／川…∫Q／川In order to estimate air temperatures in highmountainous areas it is necessary to take measure‑appearsbetween1700−2300BT．Itis considered that mentsofairtemperatureatthefootofthemountains．
most of this evening rainfall is carried by clouds
Generally，theairtemperatureisusedtoestimatethe
formedbynorthwesterly anabatic wind，andsimilar
amount ofmelt water from glaciers，because of thelack of data available for highmountainous areas．
phenomena have been observedin the Himalayas
Figure 7 shows the relationship between monthly（Ageta，1976；YasunariandInoue，1978）．
mean air temperaturesin Kartash and Qira．These∴／．し、・り右ん〟／・りJ■！／−J′／‖〃／／／／l・ノり1−小／／．／／／りノト ハ．／れ．〃打（け／心／川…70／ハJ

Precipitationinhighmountainousareasisusually
greaterthanthatinthefootareas．Figure6showsthe
relationship of monthly precipitations between Kar−tashandQira．ThemonthlyprecipitationatKartash
hasastrongcorrelationwiththat atQira．Thetotal
precipitation at Kartashis approximately3．7times

that at Qira，aS Shown by the solidlinein Fig．6．

Frequencyinpercentof4casesofmonthlyprecipita−
tionpatternatKartashandQiraisshowninTable3；

Case（a）：preCipitation occurs at both Kartash and

︵
l
上
l
u
O
∈
∈
∈
︶
竜
帽
亡
q
叉
l
帽
U
O
焉
l
亘
じ
巴
d

monthlymeanscanbedividedintotwoparts：April−

September and OctoberTMarch．The correlations
amongthevarioustemperaturesareexpressedbythefollowlngequations：
y＝0．92ズ∴−12，2，April−September

y＝0．69x−9．0，October−March

Can also be separated by the air temperature of
approximatelyOOCatKartash．Thedifferencesinthe
airtemperaturesatQiraandKartashare12．20Cfor

︵
p
︶
ゝ
ご
s
帽
亡
付
︼
u
完
ト

40

20

0

20

40

60

80 100PrecipitationatQira（mmmonth 1）
Fig．6．Correlation of monthly precipitations between
Kartash andQira．

（2）

WherexisairtemperatureinQira，andyisairtemper−
atureinKartash．AsseenfromFig．7，Eqs．（1）and（2）

80

6 0

（1）

TainQira，X（℃）
Fig・7．Correlation of monthly mean air temperatures
betweenKartashandQira．

22

BulletinofGlaciologicalResearchEq．（1）insummerand9．OOCforEq．（2）inwinter．The

rates of temperature change of summer andwinter，
whichcanbecalculatedfromthetemperaturediffer−ences and the elevation difference between Kartash

Ogy and Geography，CAS．This study was partly
supported through Special Coordination Funds for
Promoting Science and Technology of MEXT，theJapanese Government．The authors wouldlike to

and Qira，are8．70Ckm￣1（12．20C／1．4km）and6．4thank Dr．Y．Kodama，Hokkaido University and one
anonymousreviewerfortheirvaluablecomments．
OCkm￣1（9．O DC／1A km）．The rate of temperaturechangeforsummerisclosetothedryadiabaticlapse

rate．Mikamiet al．（1995）reportedbasiccharacteris− References

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