RESPONSE OF TIBETAN SNOW COVER TO GLOBAL WARMING

Daily snow depth records at 60 primary dimatc statons over the Tibetan Plateau for the penod 1957-1992 are used as basis for point and areal hme series developmat. A statistical lnodel consistng of a trend plus serially correated noise is fitted to the data to test for trend in time series of snow cover. Restilts of three trend estimatos based on difference of average, least squares fitting and slope AN (1) process imply that the increase in annual snow depth is a systematic developlnent as evidenced by the presence of a dotenniruStic trend. The spatial pattem of trend estimates convinced that the increase trends are almost onAnpresent over the wtire plateau. Further exandnation of interannual variation of snow cover over the Tiban Plateau and suffoce air tenrperature in winter over the nodriem hemisphere reveals a posihve correlation of +0.21 betWeen the two time series for period of 1957-1992.